RAINFORESTS

What are they?

Rainforests are Earth's oldest type of vegetation. They have existed more or less in the same form for more than 70 million years. They have developed in various forms. For example, there are still some Temperate and sub-tropical rainforests on earth, but the majority of the surviving ones and the largest-are tropical. Therefore our rainforest topic centres largely on Tropical Rainforests.

Rainforests occur in tropical areas, normally around the Equator, where temperature and light levels remain similar all year. Where the rainfall is also spread evenly throughout the year, you are likely to find Rainforest. Where precipitation levels vary and there is a pronounced dry season, tropical moist forests grow, and in areas with less moisture you may find dry forests and savannas.

Rainforests are densely wooded, moist areas with many layers (strata) of life. Warm, tropical, wet climates-typically 24degrees C and in excess of 500mm regular rainfall per annum (Rainforests need a minimum of 200mm rain)- provide a rich abundance of life in excess of several million forms, making Rainforests easily the most abundant home of life in this planet. It is estimated that between 50 million and 70 million life forms abound in these areas. The strata for evaluation is divided into 4 layers from the top down: the emergent level, the canopy, the understory, and forest floor.

Circling Earth like a belt, the largest rainforests are found in the Amazon Basin of South America, in Western African countries that skirt the equator, as well as South Pacific countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines . Smaller rainforests exist throughout Central America, parts of Mexico and Hawaii , and some islands of the Pacific and Caribbean .

By far the largest is the Amazon Basin , an area that were it a country would be ranked ninth in the world. This is the world's greatest resource, because it provides us with the essential service of recycling Carbon Dioxide into oxygen. 20% of the Earth's oxygen is produced from this continuous photosynthesis, so it is easy to see the catastrophic effect on the world of losing such a resource.

The Amazon is by far the largest watershed and river system in the world, producing over two thirds of all fresh water found on Earth.

The Riches of the Rainforest.

We should all celebrate the wealth of benefits supplied to mankind by rainforests.

Aside from the oxygen and water, there is more wildlife and different plant species in this 2% of the world's geographical area than the rest of the world put together! It has been estimated for example that a pond in Brazil can sustain more fish life than ALL of the rivers in Europe combined.

Apart from a vast array of food, the Rainforest also gives us substances to use for clothing, shelter, fuel, spices, industrial raw materials, and medicine. Amazingly, more than 25% of Western pharmaceuticals originate in the Rainforest.

Why are Rainforests being destroyed?

Despite irrefutable evidence that Rainforests are better for the human race when they are allowed to grow and prosper as they have done for millions of years, there seems to be a self-destruct button that we want to place on such wonderful living things, and in doing so put our future in far greater jeopardy than any war, 100 tsunamis, earthquakes or volcanoes could ever do. Mankind can recover from such disasters- we have in the past- but the wholesale destruction of Rainforest is something from which we will probably never recover because it has taken thousands and thousands of years to develop.

Today, 150 acres of forest are destroyed by lifestyle and greed every minute of every day. In just 50 years, coverage of the Earth by Rainforest has reduced from 15% to 7%. If nothing is done to stop the destruction, the Amazon could disappear within 50 years. Not only will it be impossible to replace the oxygen, but the widescale destruction of trees is creating a “double whammy”- a massive reduction in the fresh air created and a rapid build up of Carbon Dioxide from burnt trees.

A number of factors are to blame for this tragedy.

1. Commercial exploitation

Governments have looked to commercially exploit forest clearance to encourage crop growing and indigenous industry, selling off great tracts of land to pay off national debt to other countries and to banks. To some extent this has been encouraged by the World Bank in order to offset loans.

2. Logging.

Logging is done to produce fuel and paper products. A single steel plant in Brazil needs millions of tons of wood each year to produce charcoal to manufacture steel for the car bodies.

The paper industry has grown out of all proportion. Far from the computer industry reducing the need for paper, it has led to a 40% increase in office paper alone in 6 years. It is estimated that the paper industry alone will consume 4 billion tons of wood annually by 2020.

Indirect damage is a consequence of logging operations. Indirect damage occurs in a number of ways. As the desired trees are felled, they pull down surrounding habitat. World Wildlife Fund estimates that for every tree felled, another 50 are irreparably damaged.

Another major indirect effect of logging is the increased access to the forest that logging roads provide for people. This leads to an influx of farmers looking for land and results in more forest degradation due to them farming the land. The Rainforest Information Center calls these farmers shifted cultivators because they have been forced (shifted) off of their own land by the forces of development (eg mining or large scale ranching). Their only alternative for survival is therefore to burn the rainforest and set up a small farmstead.

Sadly, once an area has been logged, it will never be the same. Wildlife, plants, flowers , and fauna and have lost their home forever. As only 1% or 2% of light at the top of a rainforest canopy reaches the forest floor, all this life develops in virtual darkness. This life cannot live in the open, and so dies before a new forest can be grown.

3. Cultivated Farming.

This commercial form of farming of once rainforest arises out of demand to feed more people, and so forest is cleared to grow crops or breed animals such as cows. Vast tracts have been given over to meet human demand for more food as rice and corn, and grazing for sheep and cows replace rainforest. In Malaysia , extensive areas of lowland rainforest have been transformed to rubber and oil palm plantations.

4 . Illegal Drugs

It is estimated that 2 million acres of rainforest have been destroyed to grow coc plants to produce cocaine. In Colombia , drug income is the single largest revenue earner in the country.

A consequence of the illegal drug production is the pollution of nearby water caused by caustic chemicals being dumped after they have been used to manufacture drugs

5. Other Causes

Colonisation projects, mining and oil exploration have all contributed to further destroy rainforest.

How can we save Rainforests? 

1. Rail against Governments who support mass destruction of Rainforests.
2. Campaign for third world debt to be lifted against countries whose rainforests are being exploited to service the debt.
3. Support campaigns to save trees in the Rainforest
4. Support any products for sustaining the eco systems within the Rainforest, and produce revenue from products that do not require logging. Bee keeping and nut growing are a couple of obvious environmentally friendly industries that could be promoted and supported.
5. Do not support companies who are not “Green” or who purport to be environmentally responsible but in reality are destroying the forestation.
6. Reduce our demand for products made from logs. Paper usage must come down.
7. Do not support those who deal in drugs. If we can prevent the demand the supply will dry up.
8. Lobby your Government to help to find solutions to feeding nations of hungry mouths without devastating the Rainforests to grow food.

Some Amazing facts about Rainforests  

• Only 1% of tropical rainforest plants has been examined for their medicinal properties, but over 25% of our pharmaceuticals come from the rainforest.
• Over 50% of the Earth's species live in tropical forests.
• there are more fish species in the Amazon river system than in the Atlantic Ocean .
• At least a third of the planet's bird species live in the Amazon rainforest.
• Due to man's actions, 9,000 species are going extinct each year, most of them from the rainforests.
• At least 3000 fruits are found in rainforests; of these only 200 are now in use in the Western World.
• The U.S. National Cancer Institute has identified 3000 plants that are active against cancer cells. 70% of these plants are found in the rainforest
• The rainforest plant, Periwinkle, produces one of the world's most powerful anticancer drugs, Vincristine. It has dramatically increased the survival rate for acute childhood leukaemia.
• A single rainforest reserve in Peru is home to more species of birds than can be found in the whole of America .
• A single tree in Peru held forty-three different species of ants - about the same number of ant species in the whole of the British Isles .
• Rainforests are home to more species of plants and animals than the rest of the world put together. 
• Rainforests produce an amazing array of food and drink: citrus fruits and bananas, vegetables (peppers, okra), nuts ( brazils , cashews, peanuts), drinks (coffee, tea, cola), oils (palm, coconut), flavourings (cocoa, vanilla, sugar, spices), and dozens of other foods such as beans, grain, and fish.
• Fibres from Rainforests are used for rugs, mattresses, rope, string, fabrics, and industrial processes.
• Tropical forest oils, gums and resins are found in chemicals (eg insecticides), rubber products, fuel, paint, varnish and wood finishing products, cosmetics, soaps, shampoos, perfumes, disinfectants, and detergents.
• In 200 years half of all rainforests in the world have disappeared
• Almost 90% of Madagascar 's forests has been destroyed.
• 90% of West Africa 's rainforest has been destroyed.
• It is estimated that 50 species of life are made extinct every day due to tropical deforestation.
• Tropical forests hold some of the world's most beautiful and valuable woods, such as teak, mahogany, rosewood, balsa, and sandalwood.
• Over 50% of the Earth's species live in tropical forests.
• In Southeast Asia , traditional healers use 6,500 different tropical plants as medicines.
• Before 1500, there were around 6 million native people living in Brazil 's Amazon. By 2000 there were less than 250,000.
• Since the late 1700's, 75% of Australia 's tropical rainforest has been destroyed.
• It takes 60 years for a tropical rainforest tree to grow big enough to be used for timber.
• Tropical rainforests cover 6% of the earth's surface and contain over 50% of the earth's species.
• Over 2000 rainforest plants have been shown to have anti-cancer properties.
• Tropical rainforest temperatures are high all year around at between 20 - 30 C
• Approximately 80% of all insect species live in tropical rainforests
• 20% of all birdlife on the planet live in the Amazon
• Only 4% of the world's tropical rainforests are protected.
• A similar area of woodland that held 10 species of trees in the UK would contain 180 species in a tropical forest.
• More than 9000 species of orchids grow on tropical trees.
• The Rafflesia that grows up to 1 metre across is Earth's largest flower and comes only from the Rainforest.
• The developing countries, which own virtually all of the world's tropical rainforests, have almost 75% of the world's people but only about 15% of the world's goods.
• Unlike our forests most of the nutrients of a rainforest are stored in its vegetation rather than in its soil.
• The common way to clear land for farming or ranching is by tree felling and burning the trees. This is estimated to add another 10-20% of the World's polluting Carbon Dioxide.
• A satellite picture of the Amazon River Basin showed a total of 7,603 fires burning in the rainforest.
• Just 250 acres (100 hectares or 1 square km) of Amazon rainforest can contain up to 1500 different plant species, as many as in the whole of the UK
• Almost 65% of Central America has been cleared to create pastureland for grazing cattle.
• Rainforest land cleared for pasture or farming degrades quickly because of the lack of nutrients in the soil and is usually abandoned.
• Most of the rainforests in India and Nepal have been cleared for agriculture.
• Environmentally friendly industries work. For example, in Papua New Guinea , butterfly farms are a successful operation that provides income and supports forest preservation.
• For every tropical plant species that becomes extinct it is thought that 20 insects will also die.
• Half the rainfall in the Amazon returns to the atmosphere through the process of transpiration.