Ecology of the Forests of French Guiana - UMR ECOFOG

Joint Research Unit (UMR) ES Department
The tropical forests of French Guiana cover 8 million hectares. They are ecologically Amazonian, historically French and politically European, and constitute a tropical rainforest, characterized by considerable biodiversity and relatively uninterrupted, albeit with many types of localized disruption.
Lecythidaceae de Guyane © J. Beauchêne, Cirad

Lecythidaceae from French Guiana © J. Beauchêne, CIRAD

UMR ECOFOG aims to combine various ecology and materials science approaches so as to:

- understand the relations between the biodiversity of managed and non-managed tropical forest ecosystems and their functioning, as a result of climate and manmade pressure;

- encourage innovation in terms of forest resource use, given the vast biodiversity available, taking account of the constraints on use imposed by the humid tropical environment.

The UMR has a range of knowledge of tropical forest ecosystems that can be put to various uses, such as ecosystem management, the role of the tropical rainforest in French Guiana in the global carbon cycle, and the origin and maintenance of biodiversity in tropical forests. It is also committed to the sustainable development of the wood production sector. It establishes carbon balances and proposes simulation tools to support land use planning policies.

Regulatory bodies: