Long-term perspectives on human occupation of tropical rainforests: An introductory overview

摘要

When thinking about tropical rainforests, these landscapes are often not automatically associated with their human occupants. Similarly, the role of humans in shaping and changing these habitats over long periods of time is often overlooked or marginalised. If human action is considered, the negative aspects of modern agro-forestry, industrialisation and urbanisation are most often the focus. Yet, as the papers in this issue show, the earth's tropical rainforests have been inhabited by groups of modern humans for millennia, whether hunters and gatherers, plant managers or farmers. Some of these landscapes, such as the rainforests of Indo-Malaysia, may have seen continuous occupation by modern humans for more than 50,000 years (Barker et al., 2007), and Indonesian rainforests appear to have been inhabited by at least three different hominin species, either in turn or concurrently: Homo erectus. Homo floresiensis and Homo sapiens. The cumulative effects of the diverse ways in which people (and hominins) have adapted to and influenced the structure and composition of these inhabited landscapes are only just beginning to be understood.