At the request of the Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation, Mr. J.P. Pronk, the Tropenbos Foundation organised an international seminar in Wageningen (November, 1997) entitled 'Research in Tropical Rain Forests: Its Challenges for the Future'. The proceedings include the presentations by all speakers and a summary of the discussions following each session. The editors have also extracted conclusions from each submitted paper and presented these in clear, summarised text boxes. The final chapter is based on what the editors perceived to be the general pattern of achievements, challenges, research needs, and research conclusions. Also, the recommendations of two groups of experts who met separately on the topics of 'Linking Policy and Research' and 'Translating Pre-conditions into Policy Recommendations' are integrated in the final chapter as well.