THE GLOBAL CANOPY PROGRAMME

Almost half of all life on earth may exist in the world’s forest canopies. They may also play a vital role in maintaining the planet’s climate, yet they remain largely unexplored owing to difficulties of access.
The Global Canopy Programme (GCP) seeks to link existing and new projects studying the world’s forest canopies into one integrated global programme of research, education and conservation, focused on the function of forest canopies in the maintenance of biodiversity and the influence of forests on climate change, especially in relation to sequestering carbon from the atmosphere.

Other projects will include capacity building and education programmes coupled to conservation efforts designed to alleviate poverty at these ‘biodiversity hotspots’ through community enterprise developments based on forest canopy products and services.

The GCP is an initiative derived from the Forest Canopy Workshop held in Oxford in November 1999 which called for the setting up of this programme and created the template for its implementation.

GCP will initially link the nine ‘canopy cranes’ already in existence for studying forest canopies, as well as other initiatives using hot air balloons, walkways and climbing ropes in the world’s first global co-ordinated effort to explore “nature’s last biological frontier.”