Bringing Back Our Tropical Forests

Bringing Back Our Tropical Forests — page 7 — SCIENCE TROPICAL CONNECTION FORESTS AND BIODIVERSITY Tropical rain forests cover approximately roots that can reach 15 feet 4 6 m Rain 6 percent of Earth's surface But they contain forest trees have very shallow roots because more than one half of the world's plant and most nutrients are near the surface The animal species They produce 40 percent of buttresses help support the tree and increase its oxygen All are located in a narrow band the area through which it can obtain nutrients of latitude on either side of the equator Here Tropical rain forests teem with life They the weather remains between approximately are the most biodiverse ecosystems on the 68 and 93 degrees Fahrenheit 20°C and 34°C planet A 2 5 acre 1 ha area of Amazon rain year round A tropical rain forest receives forest contains 100 000 insect species and between 50 and 260 inches 130 to 660 cm 456 tree species By contrast the United of rain per year Most receive more than Kingdom has only 30 native tree species The 100 inches 250 cm per year Amazon as a whole has 40 000 species of Approximately 70 percent of rain forest plants 30 000 of them found only there 14 plants are trees Rain forests have more kinds The Amazon contains 54 percent of the total of trees than any other ecosystem The trees amount of rain forest left on Earth But owing have straight trunks that grow up to 100 feet to deforestation rain forest biodiversity is 30 m or more before branching At the base declining around the world the trunks spread out to form broad buttress

Bringing Back Our Tropical Forests — page 8 — E N W S Tropical rain forests shown in green cover some areas of the globe near the equator

Bringing Back Our Tropical Forests — page 9 — For three years after da Silva's election deforestation rose reaching a high in 2004 and 2005 But his programs to reduce poverty and hunger were a great success This made him popular and helped him change the attitudes of the Brazilian people Before his presidency people had seen deforestation as essential to development Under da Silva they began to see it instead as the wasteful destruction of Brazil's resources In 2008 social and environmental organizations came together to form the Zero Deforestation campaign Partners included environmental nongovernmental organizations NGOs such as Greenpeace Friends of the Earth and World Wildlife Civil societies pressure companies to take action and then companies pressure Fund WWF The campaign began to push back governments to take action 16 against the expanding cattle ranches and soybean Pipa Elias consultant to Union of Concerned Scientists 2014 farms It directly pressured both these industries and Brazil's politicians to end deforestation Zero Deforestation's pressure worked The soy industry was challenged by the 2006 Greenpeace report Eating Up the Amazon This report focused on two multinational companies Cargill and McDonald's which were making large profits from Amazon deforestation The world soy industry responded quickly by declaring a moratorium on deforestation It pledged not to buy soybeans grown on Amazon land deforested after June 24 2006 After six years satellite images showed the moratorium's success A study in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso showed that although soy prices rose to record highs after 2007 deforestation remained very low evidence that profits could be made without destroying the forests

Bringing Back Our Tropical Forests — page 10 — Large farms need broad areas of cleared rain forest for grazing cattle The cattle prevent the rain forest from regrowing In 2009 NGOs took aim at the cattle industry Two reports Time to pay the Bill by Amigos da Terra Amazônia Brasileira and Slaughtering the Amazon by Greenpeace described the role of cattle ranching in destroying the Amazon Based on these reports NGOs called for a moratorium on deforestation Cattle ranchers resisted but other groups including slaughterhouses exporters governments and bankers financing deforestation agreed to the moratorium Bankers canceled loans for expanding pastures Supermarket chains and slaughterhouses agreed not to buy from ranchers still engaging in deforestation

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