Southeast Asia constitutes one of the world's most extended rainforest regions. It is characterized by a high degree of biodiversity and contains a large variety of endemic species. Moreover, these forests provide a number of important and sin gular ecosystem services, like erosion protection and provision of high quality wa ter, which cannot be replaced by alternative ecosystems. However, various forms of encroachment, mostly those made by human interventions, seriously threaten the continuance of rainforests in this area. There is ample evidence that the rainforest resources, apart from large scale commercial logging, are exposed to danger particularly from its margin areas. These areas, which are characterized by intensive man-nature interaction, have been identified as extremely fragile systems. The dynamic equilibrium that bal ances human needs and interventions on the one hand, and natural regeneration capacity on the other, is at stake. The decrease of rainforest resources is, to a sub stantial degree, connected with the destabilization of these systems. Accordingly, the search for measures and processes, which prevent destabilization and promote stability is regarded as imperative. This refers to both the human and the natural part of the forest margin ecosystem."

The stability of rainforest margins has been identified as a critical factor in the preservation of tropical forests, e.g., in Southeast Asia, one of the world’s most extensive rainforest regions. This book contains a selection of contributions presented at an international symposium on "Land Use, Nature Conservation and the Stability of Rainforest Margins in Southeast Asia," in Bogor, Indonesia, October 2002. It highlights the critical issue of rainforest preservation from an interdisciplinary perspective, comprising input from scientists in socio-economic, biological, geographical, agrarian and forestry disciplines. The contributions are based on recent empirical research, with a special focus on Indonesia - a country with one of the highest and, at the same time, most endangered stocks of rainforest resources on earth.

This anthology offers comprehensive insight into topical issues of change in international higher education. Confronted with the challenge of increasing quality and relevance, the individual articles deal with aspects of teaching and learning, curriculum development, organization, and research in the university context. Many of them refer to concrete projects implemented in universities of Latin America, Africa, and Asia. They were developed in the University Staff Development Programme and run by the Institute for Socio-cultural Studies, University of Kassel (Germany). The anthology is dedicated to Matthias Wesseler, an active pioneer in change processes in international higher education. The contributors are colleagues in the field of international higher education, many of whom have known him as a teacher and mentor.

"Michael Fremerey" studied sociology and political science in Frankfurt am Main (Germany), Tbingen (Germany), and Freiburg (Germany). He had been research associate at Arnold-Bergstraesser-Institut in Freiburg and later at the German Institute for International pedagogical research in Frankfurt am Main. For several years he worked as a consultant on questions of development for higher education. Since 1986 he has been professor of sociology at the University of Kassel (Germany).

"Martina Pletsch-Betancourt" studied international ecological agronomy at the University of Kassel. For several years she worked in Ecuador as a consultant for development cooperation. Her key activities are quality management and change management in higher education.