Tropical rainforests took between 60 and 100 million years to evolve and are believed to be the oldest and most complex land-based ecosystem on earth, containing over 30 million species of plants and animals. That's half of the Earth's wildlife and at least two-thirds of its plant species! Rainforests have a central role to play in the slowing of climate change.
Some interesting facts about rainforests (source: Rainforest Facts):
·The Amazon Rainforest covers over a billion acres, encompassing areas in Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia and the Eastern Andean region of Ecuador and Peru. If Amazonia were a country, it would be the ninth largest in the world.
·The Amazon Rainforest has been described as the "Lungs of our Planet" because it provides the essential environmental world service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. More than 20 percent of the world oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest.
·More than half of the world's estimated 10 million species of plants, animals and insects live in the tropical rainforests. One-fifth of the world's fresh water is in the AmazonBasin.
·One hectare (2.47 acres) may contain over 750 types of trees and 1500 species of higher plants.
·At least 80% of the developed world's diet originated in the tropical rainforest. Its bountiful gifts to the world include fruits like avocados, coconuts, figs, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, bananas, guavas, pineapples, mangos and tomatoes; vegetables including corn, potatoes, rice, winter squash and yams; spices like black pepper, cayenne, chocolate, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, sugar cane, tumeric, coffee and vanilla and nuts including Brazil nuts and cashews.
·At least 3000 fruits are found in the rainforests; of these only 200 are now in use in the Western World. The Indians of the rainforest use over 2,000.
·Rainforest plants are rich in secondary metabolites, particularly alkaloids. Biochemists believe alkaloids protect plants from disease and insect attacks. Many alkaloids from higher plants have proven to be of medicinal value and benefit.
·Currently, 121 prescription drugs currently sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. And while 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients, less than 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists.
"A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people." - Franklin Delano Roosevelt
The World Land Trust is an international conservation charity based in Halesworth, a rural town in Suffolk, UK. Since its foundation in 1989 as the World Wide Land Conservation Trust, the World Land Trust has been working to preserve the world's most biologically important and threatened lands, and has helped purchase and protect over 350,000 acres of habitats rich in wildlife, in Belize, Costa Rica, India, the Philippines, South America and the UK.
The mission of WWF - the global environment network - is to stop the degradation of the planet's natural environment, and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by: conserving the world's biological diversity; ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable; reducing pollution and wasteful consumption.
Rainforest Rescue is committed to saving rainforests for current and future generations. Their projects involve rainforest restoration, research and property purchase and protection.
Forests Monitor investigates the forest industry to empower forest-dependent people and raise public awareness.
Ecotribal aims to collaborate with indigenous peoples in a way that provides them with an income from sustainable products that support their culture and autonomy as well as territorial and environmental integrity.
Other useful Rainforest links
Amazon Watch works with indigenous and environmental organisations in the Amazon Basin.
