Transcript
Where Have All the Rainforests Gone?
Losing Earth’s Greatest Biological Treasure Rainforests once covered 14% of the
Earth’s surface Now they cover a mere 6%
One-half acres of rainforest are lost every second.
One hectare (2.47 acres) may contain over 750 types of trees and 1500 species of higher plants.
Rainforests are being destroyed for the value of timber.
Agricultural demands and cattle ranching are another cause for deforestation
The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that '1.5 billion of the 2 billion people worldwide who rely on fuel wood for cooking and heating are overcutting forests'. This problem is worst in drier regions of the tropics. Solutions will probably involve a return to local peoples' control of the forests they depend on.
What About the Ecosystem?
Nearly half of the world’s species of plants, animals and microorganisms will be destroyed or severely threatened over the next quarter century due to rainforest deforestation.
Experts estimate that we are losing 137 plant, animal and insect species every single day.
That is 50,000 species a year.
Most rainforests are cleared by chainsaws, bulldozers and fires for it’s timber value, followed by farming and ranching operations.
There were an estimated ten million Indians living in the Amazonian Rainforest five centuries ago.
Today there are less than 200,000.
The Amazon Rainforest alone produces 20% of the world’s oxygen, earning the name “Lungs of our Planet”
The Rainforest and Medicine
25% of western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients.
Less than 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists.
Currently 121 prescription drugs currently sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources.
The U.S. National Cancer Institute has identified 3,000 plants that are active against cancer cell.
70% of these plants are found in the rainforest.
Vincristine, extracted from the rainforest plant, Periwinkle, is one of the world’s most powerful anticancer drugs.
It has dramatically increased the survival rate for acute childhood leukemia since it’s discovery.
Rainforest Action
Experts agree that by leaving the rainforests intact the rainforest has more economic value than if they were cut down to make grazing land for cattle, or timber.
Land converted to cattle operations yields the owner $60 per acre.
Land harvested for timber is worth $400 per acre.
If these renewable and sustainable resources are harvested, the land will yield the land owner $2,400 per acre.
If managed properly, the rainforest can provide the world’s need for these natural resources on a perpetual basis.
Solutions for Saving Our Rainforests
Timber Labeling: the FSC Addressing the Problem of
Landlessness Poverty, Debt and Inequality Population Returning Power to Local
Communities: Ending the Use of Tropical Timber:
Timber Labeling: the FSC
Addressing the Problem of Landlessness
Poor farmers opening up rainforest land for subsistence farming are the agents of more rainforest loss than any other single factor.
Industrialized countries can help ease the pressures by reducing their demand for cash crops grown in the tropics and by ceasing to give financial aid to development projects.
Poverty, Debt and Inequality
More than $1300 billion is owed by the third world to rich countries
To repay the huge amounts owed, these countries have to sacrifice their environment, as well as health and education
Population
There can be no lasting solutions to this or any other global environmental calamity until the problem of overpopulation is successfully confronted.
Solving the problem of overpopulation will involve: more widespread acceptance of the importance of replacement reproduction (no more than two children per couple), equality for women, education, particularly for women and cheap and available contraception.
Returning Power to Local Communities
Ecological degradation is characteristically linked to the disempowerment of local communities.
control over land use is taken from the people who live on the land in question and given to centralized governments .
This means that control is no longer in the hands of those who have a vested interest in maintaining the land.
It is in the hands of those who gain from its exploitation. This process needs to be reversed and power given back to local communities.
Ending the Use of Tropical Timber
Tropical timber is used in many ways, and in all cases, there are suitable alternatives available.
In Australia and other rich countries, rainforest groups provide information on the environmental impact of using tropical timber, and on how these timbers can be avoided.
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