ing new working agreements with its host country in order 

 to ensure its ability to carry out its mission into the next 

 century. 



STRI's Tropical Forest Canopy research program received a 

 major boost with the donation of a tower crane by the govern- 

 ment of Denmark through the United Nations Environment 

 Programme. Funds for fellowships for advanced training of 

 junior scientists from Latin America were also part of this 

 donation. The new crane, with a 180-foot boom offering ac- 

 cess to more than two acres of canopy, will be erected in 

 moist forest on Fort Sherman near the Caribbean coast. 

 This site has twice the rainfall of the area presently being 

 studied with the original crane, a tropical dry forest near 

 the Pacific coast. 



The Center for Tropical Forest Science completed the third 

 recensus of its 50-hectare Forest Dynamics Plot on Barro 

 Colorado Island in Panama. The recensus, which entailed 

 remeasuring a quarter million trees of over 300 species, 

 revealed several surprises. Researchers found, for example, 

 that mortality and new tree growth changed dramatically 

 over the course of 13 years. 



STRI initiated several new projects and cooperative agree- 

 ments with international organizations and with academic in- 

 stitutions. In collaboration with INRENARE, Panama's 

 National Institute of Renewable Natural Resources, and 

 funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, 

 STRI is developing a long-term monitoring program for the 

 Panama Canal Watershed. The International Tropical Timber 

 Organization, with funds from Japan, Switzerland, the U.S., 

 and Norway has approved a joint STRI-INRENARE Applied 

 Forestry Research Project for Darien Province on two key 

 commercial species cativo, an important timber tree, and 

 tagua, or ivory-nut, which provides a substitute for elephant 

 ivory. 



STRI has also signed agreements with Panama's National 

 Institute of Hydrological Resources and Electrification, which 

 manages important tropical forest watersheds. This agreement 

 provides STRI access to a small field station at Fortuna in 

 Panama's Chiriqui Highlands. Agreements were signed also 

 with the University of Panama, to renew the existing coopera- 

 tive program, and with Princeton University, for educational 

 programs in tropical biology. 



STRI hosted the Panama-Costa Rica Molecular Biology 

 Workshop held at the Tupper Center from Jan 22-23, to ex- 

 change information between molecular biology laboratories in 

 both countries. Most participants came from the University of 

 Costa Rica, the University of Panama and Universidad Santa 

 Maria La Antigua. 



The University of Panama and the Smithsonian Tropical 

 P^esearch Institute sponsored the workshop "Mosses and Liver- 

 worts as Indicators of Biodiversity in Tropical America" held 

 at the University of Panama Department of Botany from II to 

 23 March. Thirty-two representatives from nineteen countries 

 gathered for the seminar among these trained bryologists, con- 

 servationists, environmentalists, biology and forestry stu- 



dents. The Workshop was part of a European Union grant 

 to produce a two-volume illustrated Guide to the Bryophytes 

 of Tropical America by S. R. Gradstein, S. Churchill and 

 N. Salazar Allen. Objectives of the workshop were to train 

 non-bryologists and biologists in the basic tools of bryophyte 

 identification using a draft of the Guide to test it as a work- 

 able tool. 



STRI's bilingual travelling exhibit "Parting the Green Cur- 

 tain" continued its travels through Latin America, opening in 

 December 1995 at the Fedetal University of Parana in 

 Curitaba, Brazil, its eighth country. The exhibit will remain 

 in Brazil this fiscal year and will then continue on its travels 

 to Argentina in 1997. 



Two important constructions projects were completed this 

 fiscal year: STRI's Center for Tropical Paleoecology and Ar- 

 chaeology (CTPA) and STRI's new Logistics Center. The 

 CTPA, a former hospital labotatory building dating back to 

 the Canal construction era, used to house STRI's headquarters 

 in the sixties and seventies. This newly renovated facility will 

 bting together STRI's multidisciplinary program that studies 

 the past history of tropical environments. Early next fiscal 

 year maintenance and logistical support personnel will move 

 from the Naos Shop, a World War I building, to the new 

 Logistical facility in the Tupper Center area to provide bettet 

 centralized support. The former Naos Shop will be renovated 

 to accommodate the molecular evolution program. 



STRI said farewell this year to five members of its suppott 

 and maintenance staff who elected to retire: Nicolas Almanza, 

 documents expediter for the Office of External Affairs; Ricar- 

 do Cortez, maintenance leader on Barro Colorado Island; Luis 

 Cruz, cook-seaman of vessel the R.V Urraca; Everardo Curney, 

 mail expediter for the Procurement Department, and Carlos 

 Espinoza, maintenance worker on Barro Colorado Island. 



Eileen Jones, formerly with the SI Office of Public Affairs, 

 joined the STRI Washington Office as its new Grants Pro- 

 gram Specialist. 



STRI's Information Technology Office developed the STRI 

 homepage on the INTERNET. Programmed to constantly 

 develop, the new homepage will provide information on STRI 

 facilities and research to wider audiences. 



Director Ira Rubinoff and Staff scientist Mary Jane West- 

 Eberhard were selected this year as members of the American 

 Academy of Arts and Sciences. Rubinoff was selected for his 

 conttibutions to academic and research administration and 

 West-Eberhard for her work in evolutionary and population 

 biology and ecology. STRI's Anibal Verlade, Naos scientific 

 coordinator, and Jose Sanchez, janitor on Barro Colorado Is- 

 land, received Unsung Heroes Awards, and Georgina de Alba, 

 assistant director for fellowships and education, was one of 

 this year's recipients of the Secretary's Award for Excellence in 

 Exhibits and Public Programs. 



Members of the SI Women's Committee visited the various 

 STRI facilities in Panama from January 14—20. From March 

 10-15 cne new SI provost Dennis O'Connor made his first visit 

 to STRI. 



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