Why Are the Rain Forests Being Destroyed A fragile paradise Rain forests hold incredibly rich stores of animal and plant life A third of the world’s plant life grows in the rain forests and each 1 2 square yards one square meter can support up to 177 pounds 80 kilograms of living material biomass It is known that more than half of the world’s animal and plant species live in the rain forests and a single acre can contain 80 different tree species and more than 16,200 species of insect In just 25 acres 10 hectares of Malaysian rain forest 780 different species of tree were discovered That is more than the total number of tree species that are native to all of the US and Canada This selection of butterflies comes from one small area of rain forest in the Central African Republic Each species lives on its own specific tree and emerges once a year to coincide with a key event in the tree’s life cycle such as flowering Amazingly given the vast number of species rain forests support their soils are shallow and acidic In fact their soils are among the poorest in the world and heavy rainfall washes away any nutrients that are not taken up by the trees Rain forests are able to thrive because they feed on themselves dead plant and animal matter decays quickly on the forest floor and the shallow-rooted trees quickly absorb the nutrients released Treading lightly People have lived in harmony with the rain forest for thousands of years with a way of life that went almost unchanged for centuries In the Amazon tribes such as the Yanomami Kayapo and Yekuana have learned to conserve the resources of their forest home They know never to take too much from the forest They hunt for meat grow crops and gather fruits and nuts They use many of the plants and animals to provide medicines for their people and poisons for hunting 8
Unfortunately the tribes encounters with civilization have often led to disaster for them It is estimated that the Amazon rain forest supported about 6 million tribal people before 1500 CE By the year 2000 there were fewer than 250,000 left More than 90 tribes are thought to have disappeared just from the Amazon during the twentieth century alone Many were wiped out when Western settlers brought diseases they had never encountered before such as measles which alone killed thousands of tribespeople Why do we need the rain forests Ex p e r t Vi ew Anthropologist Flora Lu Holt lived with the Huaorani in the Amazonian rain forest for more than 10 years I think that the Huaorani are capable of making good decisions I think that they can adopt certain things from Western culture or choose not to What’s important is that they have that choice Flora Lu Holt Now some of the tribes such as the Yanomami have protected homelands in government-approved reservations and they are more able to maintain their traditions The way of life of the forest peoples is as fragile as the forests they live in They could teach us much but most prefer to be left alone to continue living as they always have in harmony with their surroundings The Waura people from the Brazilian Amazon were almost wiped out by disease in the 1950s after they came into contact with the industrialized world They have now been vaccinated against diseases such as tetanus influenza and measles and as a result the tribe now numbers around 400 individuals again 9
Why Are the Rain Forests Being Destroyed Rain forest products A large number of everyday foodstuffs that we enjoy today have their origins in the rain forests of the world For example bananas peppers peanuts coffee tea cola cocoa vanilla sugar and many spices all come from the world’s rain forests although some have been adapted over the years to grow in other climate zones Valuable tropical woods including mahogany teak rosewood and sandalwood are used to make furniture ornaments and perfumes In the home oils gums and resins that have been sourced from the rain forests are found in such everyday items as soaps varnish and wood-finishing products fuel paint insecticides detergents and disinfectants Rain forest medicines Perhaps even more important than the household products we are all familiar with are the medicines that originate in the rain forest So far more than 2,000 rain forest plants have been identified as having anti-cancer properties Scientists have tested only 10 percent of these plants and have studied only 1 percent of them in detail About 25 percent of all medicines used by people in the US are made from ingredients originating in the rain forest Curare which is a substance extracted from a rain forest vine is commonly used in carefully measured doses in surgery as a muscle relaxant However tribal peoples use curare in stronger doses as a poison on darts and arrows when hunting The rosy periwinkle from the rain forests of Madagascar off the east coast of Africa is used to treat leukemia Who knows how many other cures remain undiscovered deep in the forests Climate regulation Rain forests store a colossal amount of water it is thought that up to half of the world’s rainwater Moisture that evaporates from the forest gathers in clouds above the canopy When the vapor condenses it creates the conditions for the forest’s daily downpour 10
sun CO2 Why do we need the rain forests is stored in rain forests The trees draw in the water and release it into the atmosphere through evaporation as swirling mists and clouds The rain forests recycle huge amounts of water every day and this helps to feed rivers lakes and irrigation systems preventing droughts and the famine and disease that follow them O2 water and minerals Photosynthesis in action Water absorbed by the plant’s roots combines with carbon dioxide CO2 from the air and sunlight to produce starch energy for the plant and oxygen O2 The lungs of the planet During the day rain forests absorb carbon dioxide CO2 from the atmosphere The plants make their food using a process called photosynthesis In photosynthesis leaves absorb carbon dioxide from the air combine it with water sucked up by the plant’s roots and with the aid of sunlight convert them into sugars This provides the fuel the plants need to survive As a by-product of photosynthesis plants produce oxygen O2 which is released into the atmosphere The vast number of trees and other plants growing in the rain forests help to maintain the balance of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the atmosphere throughout the entire world F O RU M When you see pictures of the rain forests there are so many trees it seems impossible that they could all be destroyed It requires a little imagination to realize they are all under threat The rain forests are miles away why should I care Student US They may be far away but the world needs the rain forests and you probably use products from the rain forest every day What’s your opinion Teacher US With their enormous range of animal and plant species the foods materials and medicines they provide and the crucial contribution they make to circulating the planet’s water and regulating the world’s atmosphere the rain forests are enormously important Yet despite all of this they are being destroyed at an alarming rate
