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years to relocate administrative and support activities from leased space (which will no longer be available to the Observatory after 1982) to Forest Service land, and for paving and maintenance of access road. Requirements for these facilities are more fully explained in the facilities chapter of this document.

[[underline]] Tropical Research Institute. [[/underline]] The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institution provides the principal focus for the nation's basic research effort in the tropics. In addition to fundamental environmental research, the Institute maintains a series of land holdings, including the world famous Barro Colorado Island, as field sites for tropical studies. Under the agreement of the Panama Canal Treaty, the Institute is designated as the custodian of the Barro Colorado Nature Monument (BCNM), which includes not only the Island but also found adjacent peninsulas in Gatun Lake.

Over the past year, the Institute engaged in a dialogue with Panamanian officials to determine the boundaries of the West Bank peninsula that are to be added to the BCNM as defined under the Carter-Torrijos Panama Canal Treaty that went into effect on October 1, 1979. Agreement was reached on the dimensions of these areas and the Institute has initiated trail clearing and posting.

A Land Management Plan and Master Plan for the BCNM will be developed during the coming year. Much work remains to be done in such areas as establishing procedures for cooperation and integration of the administration and the BCNM with the Panama Canal Authority, the Panamanian Guardia Nacional, and the Panama Canal Commission.

In other areas of the Institute's operations, staff are at work defining and establishing new procedures for visas, residence permits, labor management, auto registration, customs, schools, hospitals, personnel services, commissaries, security, and utilities. The outcome of these negotiations will have a major impact on the Institute's future operating costs. At this point it is too early to predict the total outcome of the anticipated changes. It is clear, however, that additional administrative support will be needed to support operations through the Treaty transition period.

In future years, the Institute will continue to focus its scientific research capabilities on understanding the biological, ecological, and behavioral processes on which tropical ecosystems are organized. The long-held concept of the tropics as a benign and nonseasonal environment has finally lost its credibility, in part as a result of the many excellent studies conducted at the Institute. Recent major publications of the Institute include an analysis of the biology and zonation of mangroves, and a study of the abundance and diversity of canopy insects. A complete program has been organized to study pre- and post actions and interactions of the Africanized "killer" honey bees [[underline]] (Apis mellifera) [[/underline]]. Baseline