Shred but not dead.

• Author: Misch, Ann
• Position: Remnants of forests

Maps made from roving-satellite snapshots of Latin America, especially of the verdant mantle of the Amazon rainforest, show large tracts of land that are still covered in forest. The maps often depict these areas in black. In contrast, white areas on the map appear entirely denuded. But a closer look at the region portrayed on the map reveals that things are not as black and white as they seem, says John Schelhas, a Cornell University expert on land use in Central America.

Scattered across areas that look cleared, says Schelhas, are tufts of leftover forest. These fragments are too sparse to show up on current maps, but more research on them may brighten, to some extent, the gloomy picture we have been seeing of rapid forest destruction in Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

The biological richness of such fragments may vary, but a number of biologists, sobered by the rate of deforestation in tropical countries, have concluded that pieces of forest - whatever their ecological assets - are far better than no forest at all. This view represents a painful pragmatism, since many experts concede that large-scale clearing of tropical forests is inevitable. They estimate that only 5 to 10 percent of the world's primary forests will make it safely into protected reserves. Given this bleak outlook, conservationists who concentrate only on rescuing large tracts of primary tropical forest are "setting standards that are too high," say Judith Gradwohl and Russell Greenberg of the Smithsonian Institution.

Until recently, forest fragments suffered from a kind of arboreal discrimination, or "image" problem. Viewed as crippled ecosystems, they failed to entrance biologists or inspire the efforts of conservationists as much as did the dense mystery of untouched, primary forests. But newer studies of these relict forests, which range in size from small stands to thousands of acres, have revealed that they are serendipitous refuges for various migrating birds, primates, frogs, and plants. While some fragments have lost much of their original biological wealth, others shelter vibrant ecosystems.

Remnant forests offer a variety of uses to Third World populations, and so are often spared from further clearing. In Latin America, for example, many farmers leave clumps of trees on their land to provide fruit and to give shade to homesteads that would otherwise swelter in the sun. On other settlements, a fringe of soaring trees follows the riverside, and...