The Tropical Forestry Handbook is a two volume set with over 1,700 pages. The 28 chapters are each addressed by diferent authors considered experts in each section. The books were published in 1993 by Springer-Verlag, and the ISBN is 0-387-56420-9. I believe it is available in german and translated to english.
The writing in each chapter is as varied as the many authors. The information can be a little overwhelming, but it is intended to cover "all the fields necessary for the management of tropical forest resources." The stated audiance is forestry professionals and natural resource managers. Some of the figures and tables were so dense and not well explained that they were not helpful. I still have learned a lot from these books, and conceived of many questions that I want to answer before buying or planting.
Since this is my first book specifically about tropical forestry, I do not have a frame of reference for its utility. A lot of the authors would reference research projects that were still developing, due to the long life span of the trees, so an update would be interesting. I chose this book from the Forestry library at the University of Minnesota's School of Natural Resources because I needed the basics. Many of the books I had to chose from seem to expound on one or more of the many topics addressed in this book.
I have presented the chapter titles below, to give an idea of what's in this book, and what they believe are the necessary topics for the management of tropical forest resources:
Vol. 1 - Geology and soils; Climatology; Ecology of Tropical Forests; Remote Sensing; Forest Inventory; Genetics and Its Application to Tropical Forestry; Forest Seed Handling; Nursery Management; Mineral Nutrition of Tropical Trees; Species Selection; Forestation; Silviculture in the Tropical Natural Forests
Vol. 2 - Land evaluation and foresty management; Watershed management; Range management; Agroforestry; Wildlife conservation and management; Pest management; Fire management; Forest roads in the tropics; Harvesting; Non-timber forest products; Trade and marketing; Ergonomics/labour; Extension; Forestry economics; Forestry project/Enterprise management; Forest policy
Although this book can be a bit brutal and I am still reading it, I would recommend it for the bredth of knowledge represented, and the many inspiring concepts and real life experience translated in this book.
Thanks for recommending this book. I was able to check both volumes out of the Georgia State University Library. It was a great read and provides detailed information on all aspects of Tropical Forestry. To see if the book is available in a library near, check out the site below:
