Some of the foods that were originally from rainforests around the world include cashew nuts, Brazil nuts, Macadamia nuts, bananas, plantains, pineapple, cucumber, cocoa (chocolate), coffee, tea, avocados mango, yams, sweet potato, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, mace, ginger, cayenne pepper, cloves, oranges, grapefruit, lemons, limes, passion fruit, peanuts, rice, sugar cane, and coconuts (mostly from coastal areas).
People Living in Tropical Rainforests
There are many groups of people who have live in the tropical rainforests. Many of these groups, like the Yanomamo tribe of the Amazon rainforests of Brazil and southern Venezuela, have lived in scattered villages in the rainforests for hundreds or thousands of years. These tribes get their food, clothing, and housing mainly from materials they obtain in the forests.
Forest people are mostly hunter-gatherers; they get their food by hunting for meat (and fishing for fish) and gathering edible plants, like starchy roots and fruit. Many also have small gardens in cleared areas of the forest. Since the soil in the rainforest is so poor, the garden areas must be moved after just a few years, and another part of the forest is cleared.
Most indigenous populations are declining. There are many reasons for this. Their primary problems are disease (like smallpox and measles, which were inadvertently introduced by Europeans) and governmental land seizure.
Although we may live many thousands of miles away from tropical rainforests the way we live still has an effect on them. People from all countries of the world can help.
There are many ways to save rainforests and prevent them disappearing forever.
What is destroying the rainforest?
Farming
Sometimes the forest is cut down for plantations to grow food for rich countries. Foods such as strawberries, eggplant, peppers, pineapples, bananas, sugar, groundnuts, palm kernels and cotton are grown.
Barbados has replaced its tropical rainforests with sugar cane. In Malaysia tropical rainforests are disappearing at 250,000 hectares per year for rubber and oil palm plantations.
Rubber is widely planted as a cash crop in the tropics. It is made from a sticky sap, obtained from a tree, which was discovered in the Amazon forest. The seeds from these plants have been planted in many other tropical countries.
Cattle ranching
In Central and South America, people were encouraged by their governments to move into the forest and claim land. Government sponsored programmes made it easy for people to settle in the forest. The government offered cheap loans to buy land and make ranches.
When the ranchers move into the forest they burn the trees to clear the land for grazing cattle. After a few years the land becomes exhausted and the ranchers must burn another area, destroying more forest. Since 1960, when the Central American beef market began booming, more than 25% of the area's rainforests have been cleared. Over 2/3 of Central America's agricultural land is now occupied by cattle ranches. The cattle ranches are used to produce beef. There is a huge international market for cheap beef. Much of this traditionally comes from South America.
Mining / Oil
In the 1970s, mining companies began pushing into the forests. Huge areas of tropical rainforest have been destroyed to mine iron ore, bauxite for aluminium, gold and other minerals.
Mining activities need roads, which are to be used by settlers, and poachers who exploit the forest. Mining activities often cause severe pollution of rivers. Mining companies often pay hunters to supply meat from the forest animals to feed the miners.
OIL
Oil companies go into the rainforest to drill for oil that is found beneath the ground.
The exploitation and production of oil is a great threat to large areas of rainforests. Oil companies are pushing into the western edge of the Amazon rainforest to drill for oil.
Yansuni National Park in Ecuador has Conoco Inc, Occidental and BP actively drilling for oil, Nigeria has Shell, Colombia has Exxon and Chevron is exploring Papua New Guinea.
Oil drilling involves cutting trees to make room for roads, pipelines and oil machinery. It also gets spilled and pollutes rivers and streams, poisoning the wildlife as well as the water people drink.
Oil is used as a fuel and to make plastic bags, bottles and cups and fabrics such as nylon and polyester.
Burning oil and other fossil fuels also causes dirty air and contributes to global warming and climate change
Timber / logging
Some of the trees that grow in tropical rainforests such as teak, mahogany and rosewood are in great demand for timber by developed countries such as the USA, UK and Japan. To meet the demand for mahogany, teak, and ebony at least 4.5 million hectares are logged each year. Hardwoods may take a hundred years to mature so they cannot be easily replaced or farmed.
The wood is used for building and making furniture, plywood, veneers, pulp and paper.
Logging companies bring mass destruction into the forests through road building, transporting the logs and construction of sawmills.
Rich countries want the timber for the building industry and the poorer developing countries need to sell the timber to earn money. One tree can be worth up to £1000. A developing country can make up to £6 billion a year from exporting hardwoods.
Tropical trees (mainly mahogany) are in demand because of their variety and high quality.
_____Ilegal logging_____
Fire
Forest fires have destroyed large areas of tropical forest. Fires are started as a quick way to clear land for farming. However the fires can burn out of control, destroying large areas of forest. In Indonesia fires burned out of control for most of 1997 and 1998. These fires were started to clear land for oil palm plantations and industrial pulpwood plants. Burning the forests is a much cheaper way of clearing the forests than using bulldozers or chemicals.
What is all this causing in effect?
Medicine
When rainforests are destroyed, many plants are lost forever. Modern medicines often use products from rainforest plants. Many species of plants have yet to be discovered. Rainforests are likely to hold the answer to some incurable diseases. The rosy periwinkle flower is only found in Madagascar. It is used to treat cancer but this plant could be lost if the rainforests are destroyed.
Global Warming
Tropical rainforests act like lungs of the earth. The trees take up the carbon dioxide and release oxygen into the atmosphere. Destroying the forests upsets the balance, with more carbon dioxide being left in the atmosphere and less oxygen being released.
When burning the trees clears tropical rainforests, carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere.
This contributes to the 'greenhouse effect’, which causes global warming. It is estimated that 1/3 to 1/5 of carbon dioxide pollution comes from tropical rainforest destruction. This warming of the atmosphere will also cause problems with the sea levels because of melting ice caps and expansion of water. Sea levels are rising and it is estimated that by 2050 sea levels will rise to 1.5 metres, flooding many low-lying areas. It is estimated that by 2050, 150 million people in countries such as Holland, India and Bangladesh will be homeless.
Soil Erosion
The forest canopy protects the soil from heavy rain by stopping it reaching the forest floor. The whole forest acts like a giant sponge and the tree roots help to keep the soil together. After the trees have been removed, the soil is left bare and open to rain, wind and heat. The soil is then easily and quickly washed away. The soil erosion causes rainwater to carry millions of tonnes of silt into rivers, streams and onto coral reefs many miles away.
Without the sponge effect of the forest, the heavy rains pour into the rivers and cause flooding.
The trees and the leaf litter contain the nutrients of the forest. When they are removed, the remaining soil is poor and desert-like.
People
Destroying the rainforests can also destroy people that live there. Many native tribes have already died from illnesses brought in from the outside world by explorers, hunters and settlers. Many of those that have survived have been forced to live on reservations or to go to big cities.
Their way of life and culture has been destroyed along with their home.
What are we doing to help save the rainforest?
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EDUCATION
People who live in countries with rainforests need to understand their importance. People in other countries also need to understand how their lifestyles affect the rainforests.
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NATURE SWAPS
The world's tropical rainforests are found mostly in poor countries that have big debts. These countries have built large dams and roads, encouraged by foreign governments lending them the money.
These poor, developing countries can't afford to pay back the debts without selling timber and minerals from their tropical rainforests.
Now some conservation organisations are buying the debts in exchange for rainforest conservation. These are called 'debt for nature swaps'.
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THE REAL PLAN
In January 1995 the government in Brazil came up with new ideas to help conserve the rainforests. They set up a plan called the Real Plan. The plan promised more care for the environment and threw out ideas about building dams across the Amazon to provide electricity to Brazil's cities.
The Real Plan aimed to divide the forest into sections for different uses.
Mining and logging companies were ordered to plant trees on land that they had cleared. Sawmills and factories not obeying the new environmental laws were closed down.
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INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS
* The World Conservation Union (IUCN) is an organization with people from many countries who work to produce plans to protect the environment.
* The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) decides which endangered plants and animals need to be protected by international law.
* Earth Summit. This is when governments from around the world get together to decide what needs to be done to protect the planet. The first Earth Summit was held in Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil, in 1992.
The main points agreed at this meeting were:
* Conserving biodiversity
* Protecting forests
* Agenda 21 (encouraging communities to work together for a sustainable future).
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TREES BY LAW
Some tropical trees have become so reduced in the wild by logging that they are protected by an international agreement called CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species).
Through this, trade in Brazilian rosewood timber is banned.
Exports of African timber known as Afromosia is only allowed with permits. CITES also bans or controls trade in a long list of products from animal species including Asian rhino, tigers, parrots and apes.
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ECOTOURISM
Ecotourism is a sustainable use for the rainforests. Visitors are allowed to visit tropical rainforest areas and stay in environmentally friendly accommodation. It provides income to support conservation and visitors are taught through lectures, tours, visits and field excursions about the forests.
Ecotourism is already being carried out in tropical rainforest areas such as Belize, Costa Rica, Brazil and Australia.
This however does not provide all the answers to help save the rainforests. It is suggested that the presence of visitors in the forest has changed the way the animals behave and has put the environment under pressure from the activities of the visitors.
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FOREST RESERVES AND SUSTAINABLE USE
Forest reserves can be managed in a sustainable way. This may include:
* Carefully selecting trees for logging, allowing natural regrowth.
* Planned logging and replanting of small areas.
* Preventing illegal logging and poaching.
In 1989 a forest reserve was created in Brazil, covering 500,000 hectares (1.25 million acres). In this reserve forest dwellers are allowed to collect nuts and rubber and to decide amongst themselves on the best way to look after the forest.
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NATIONAL PARKS
National parks cover an estimated 5% of tropical rainforest areas.
They were created to protect the animals, wildlife and people.
Korup National Park in Cameroon protects an area of rainforest, which has never been logged. It is a primary forest.
In this area local people live in the forest by hunting and fishing and now they help to run the national park. A Small amount of tourism is allowed only on the edges of the national park.
- BUYING AREAS OF RAINFOREST
Conservation organisations in richer countries have supporters who give money to buy areas of rainforest to conserve them.
