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Field Museum and Bolivian biologists explore the interior of the Beni Biosphere Reserve, conducting biological inventories on various 

 groups of plants and animals. This large forested area will be managed for long-term conservation goals as part of the "debt for nature" 

 swap arranged by Conservation International. Photo by r. b Foster 



Conservation of Tropical Diversity 



The Field Museum Connection 



By Bruce D. Patterson, Associate Curator and Head, Mammals 



18 



There is great current interest in what has been 

 termed the "biodiversity crisis." The threatened 

 collapse of biological diversity has attracted wide 

 media coverage the world over, all of it sympathetic to 

 the preservation of diversity. Yet, 20th-century 

 life-styles have intricate interdependencies: one can 

 contribute unwittingly to the destruction of natural 

 diversity simply by purchasing a hamburger or bedroom 

 furniture in Chicago! Obviously, many of society's 



relationships to tropical diversity are indirect and 

 generally unappreciated, including some critically 

 important ones. 



Thus far, media coverage of the diversity crisis has 

 paid only lip service to the crucial roles that natural 

 history museums play in tropical conservation efforts. 

 Far more attention is deserved. Natural history mu- 

 seums are society's only institutions devoted entirely to 

 the study of biological and cultural diversity. Field 



