6 Reasons to Care About Tropical Rain Forests

1. They could save your life: Rainforests are a great source for medicinal products. 25% of western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest sources. According to the U.S. National Cancer Institute, 70% of plants useful in treating cancer are found in the rainforest. There are more than 2,000 of such plants known. Less than 1% of tropical rainforest species have been analyzed for medicinal value. These include animal species as well. What a tragedy it would be to destroy something that could cure millions of people around the world from some of the most terrible diseases afflicting them. Yet an estimated 6 species per hour, 137 species per day, 50,000 species per year are lost due to rainforest destruction. For survival in nature plants and animals have experimented for millions of years, producing compounds and chemicals that would take centuries or more of experimentation in a lab to find. Millions of years of adaptation, destroyed in seconds.
2. Biodiversity: 50% of Earths species live in rainforests. A typical square mile patch of rainforest contains up to 1,500 flowering plants, 750 species of trees, 400 species of birds and 150 species of butterflies according to Nature Conservancy. These species should be protected not only for their exquisite beauty, or their value in a healthy ecosystem but for their value as a resource, both in pharmaceuticals and in providing the native population with a source for Ecotourism.
3. It is a Humanitarian Issue: According to Nature Conservancy, 90% of the worlds 1.2 billion people in poverty depend on rainforests for their livelihoods. If the forests natural resources were harvested in a sustainable manner they would yield $2400 per acre. If the forest were totally cleared for cattle operations it would yield a mere $60 per acre and an additional $400 per acre for the cleared timber. Thus harvesting natural resources in a sustainable manner could lift these people out of poverty while preserving the forest.
4. Oxygen: The Amazon Rainforest produces 30% of Earth’s oxygen. It is second only to plankton in oxygen production. This feature makes the rainforest a carbon sink, sucking in carbon dioxide and releasing clean oxygen for all of the world’s humans to breathe.
5. Destruction is a cause of global climate change: Since the Amazon is a Carbon Sink its destruction means the release of stored carbon. Burning or rotting rainforest material releases that stored carbon and helps accelerate climate change.
6. The Rainforest is crucial to global hydrology: 1/5 of the global supply of fresh water is found in the Amazon basin. The Amazon plays a crucial role in the global water cycle, recycling the planet’s freshwater supply.

Works Cited

“Rainforests: Facts About Rainforests.” The Nature Conservancy. 2010.

“Rainforest Facts.” Raintree Nutrition Inc. 2010.

“Rates of Rainforest Destruction and Species Loss in the Ecuadorian Amazon.” Ecuador Explorer.com. 2009.