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News articles on Rainforests

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Mongabay.com news articles on rainforests in blog format. Updated regularly.

Logging in the Rainforest
(3/1/2005) Logging is one of the most prominent and best-known forms of rainforest degradation and destruction. Despite improved logging techniques and greater international awareness and concern for the rainforests, unsustainable logging of tropical rainforests continues--much of it practiced illegally by criminal syndicates.


The Impact Oil Production in the Rainforest
(3/1/2005) The extraction of oil is responsible for the deforestation, degradation, and destruction of lands across the globe. The oil extraction process results in the release of toxic drilling by-products into local rivers, while broken pipelines and leakage result in persistent oil spillage. In addition, the construction of roads for accessing remote oil sites opens wild lands to colonists and land developers.


Fires in the Rainforest
(3/1/2005) Today most rainforest fires originate in nearby pasturelands and agricultural fields where fires are used for land clearing and crop maintenance. Every year, during the burning season, tens of thousands of fires are set by land speculators, ranchers, plantation owners, and poor farmers to clear bush and forest. Under dry conditions these agricultural forests can easily spread into neighboring rainforest.


Human Threats to Rainforests - Debt
(3/1/2005) In the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s, debt was driving commercial deforestation in some developing tropical countries. Strapped for cash, these countries turned toward their natural resources as the fastest and easiest way to service debt and interest payments. Readily available without capital investment or skilled labor, often non-renewable, forest products like mineral wealth, timber, oil, and hydroelectric power were liquidated in an effort to raise much-needed funds.


Human Threats to Rainforests - Cattle Pastures
(3/1/2005) The majority of the commercial destruction in the Amazon Basin from the 1960s to early 1990s was not due to logging or mining, but to cattle ranchers and land speculators who burned huge tracts of rainforest before planting the areas with African grasses for pasture. In Brazil, government figures attributed 38 percent of deforestation from 1966-1975 to large-scale cattle ranching. Cattle ranching has been even more widespread in parts of Central America, led by Costa Rica, which has one of the worst deforestation rates in Latin America. During the 1970s and early 1980s, stretches of rainforest were burned and converted into cattle pasture lands to meet American demand for beef.


Reducing the impact of cattle ranching in the rainforest
(3/1/2005) Clearing for pastureland and land speculation purposes is a major cause of tropical forest loss, especially in Latin America. Cattle are an attractive investment for Amazonian farmers because they are a highly liquid capital asset with low marginal costs once forest has been cleared. Cattle are used to establish land claims on otherwise "unoccupied" rainforest land and can be used as a hedge against inflation..


Funding Tropical Rainforest Conservation
(3/1/2005) Now that we have prioritized what forest areas should be set aside for reserves, we must focus on implementation and management of these protected areas. Clearly all three steps will require a broad spectrum of participants, from local farmers to CEOs of multinational corporations to high-ranking government officials. Without cooperation, any protected-areas system is destined to fail..


Asian Forest Peoples
(3/1/2005) Asia is by far the most populous region on earth, and population pressures have pushed people into forested lands where they interrupt the lives of the few remaining forest people. The original inhabitants of Southeast Asia were dark-skinned, frizzy-haired, broad-nosed Australoids, some of whom moved into Australia. They were hunters, not farmers, but nonetheless used a wide variety of plants for food, medicinal remedies, and other useful products. These people since have been pushed into the extreme reaches of the rainforest by waves of immigration. Today the original people of Asian rainforests are found only in remote parts of forests of the Malay peninsula, Borneo, the Andaman islands, the Philippines (Palawan island), and New Guinea.


Environmental impact of mining in the rainforest
(3/1/2005) Gold, copper, diamonds, and other precious metals and gemstones are important resources that are found in rainforests around the world. Extracting these natural resources is frequently a destructive activity that damages the rainforest ecosystem and causes problems for people living nearby and downstream from mining operations. In the Amazon rainforest most mining today revolves around alluvial gold deposits. Due to the meandering nature of Amazon rivers, gold is found both in river channels and on the floodplains where rivers once ran. These deposits are actively mined by large-scale operators and informal, small-scale miners. Both operators rely heavily on hydraulic mining techniques, blasting away at river banks, clearing floodplain forests, and using heavy machinery to expose potential gold-yielding gravel deposits. Gold is usually extracted from this gravel using a sluice box to separate heavier sediment and mercury for amalgamating the precious metal. While most of the mercury is removed for reuse or burned off, some may end up in rivers. Studies have found that small-scale miners are less efficient with their use of mercury than industrial miners, releasing an estimated 2.91 pounds (1.32 kg) of mercury into waterways for every 2.2 pounds (1 kg) of gold produced. While there is no scientific consensus on mercury contamination in the Amazon, according to biologist Michael Goulding, there is evidence of mercury causing problems in other ecosystems. Elemental or inorganic mercury can be transformed (methylated) into organic forms by biological systems and enter food chains. Not only are methylated mercury compounds toxic, but highly bioaccumulative, meaning that mercury concentrations increase up the food chain. Top predators, including otters, birds of prey, and humans, will have the highest levels of mercury in their systems. Those who eat large amounts of fish are at the greatest risk.


Forest People Today
(3/1/2005) Tropical rainforests have supported humans since ancient times. Although forest life cannot be described as easy, these peoples have built their lives around the surrounding forest and its systems. Consequently, they are a great storehouse of the knowledge about the forest. They know the medicinal properties of plants and understand the value of the forest as an intact ecosystem. As forests fall, these indigenous peoples lose their homes and culture. Conflicts with settlers, who also bring disease and domestic animals, has resulted in the decline of the native population in many areas..


Floating Meadows
(3/1/2005) Floating plants have advantages over submerged plants in that they always have access to sunlight and can readily use the nutrients of whitewater rivers. Submerged plants have difficulty capturing enough sunlight in the muddy waters to carry out sufficient photosynthesis..


Flooding, Low Water, High Water
(3/1/2005) Seasonal flooding is characteristic of many tropical rivers, although few compare to the so-called igapo (swamp forest) and varzea (flooded forest) of the Amazon River Basin, where large tracts of rainforest are inundated to depths of 40 feet during seasonal flooding. The lowest flood stage occurs in August and September, while the highest stage occurs in April and May. Tributaries that drain the Guyana Shield flood in June, while the tributaries that drain the Brazilian Shield flood in March or April. Since the peak rainy seasons are out of phase, the peak discharges of left bank (Guyana shield) and right bank (Brazilian shield) rivers are somewhat offset, having the effect of moderating high and low water levels on the main stream, but tributaries can have extreme variations..


Human Threats to Rainforests - Economic Restructuring
(3/1/2005) In recent years economic globalization has brought about profound changes in countries around the world. Generally there has been a trend of decentralizing government and reducing the role that government plays in the everyday life of its citizens. In developing countries, this shift has put a greater strain on forest resources which have customarily been treated as state property. Whether determined by a market economy or dictated by a command economy, management of forest land has been the responsibility of public forest services. Forest exploitation firms have dealt through these bureaucracies, which generally ensure some sort of control over the allocation of forest lands.


Rivers, Streams, and Creeks
(3/1/2005) Tropical rainforest rivers are often overwhelming to the first-time visitor because of their size and abundance. Even more perplexing is the ability of tropical rivers to fork into large branches, forming giant islands that can be easily confused with the mainland. It is sometimes nearly impossible to distinguish which is the main fork of the river.


River Types
(3/1/2005) First-time visitors to the Amazon or other large tropical rivers are often shocked to see the muddy brown, almost polluted-looking water. However, this color results not from sewage or pollution, but from the heavy sediment load of the water. Each day, tons of sediment are washed into rainforest rivers from the mountains and from run-off of surrounding forest areas due to heavy tropical rains. The sediment load is even greater where deforestation has left the soils unprotected and massive amounts of topsoil are eroded by the rains.


Rainforest Canopy - Animal Locomotion
(3/1/2005) Because significant gaps exist between the branches of the canopy, animals of this zone must be able to negotiate these discontinuities by some means. The majority of canopy species climb, leap, or fly from tree to tree, and are equipped with appropriate mechanisms which enable them to do so successfully. Some species have undergone major adaptations which allow them to glide. The dominant form of canopy locomotion differs in each continental rainforest, a product of forest structure and evolutionary history..


Rainforest Canopy - Animals
(3/1/2005) The incredible diversity of food sources and unique niches of the canopy trees support a wide variety of animal species. Animals often congregate around a flowering tree, which makes trees in this stage some of the best sites for viewing wildlife. In places like these, where food is abundant, animals set up territories, but since canopy leaf cover affects visual territorial displays, most animals rely on sound signals. Thus some of the loudest animals of the world are canopy dwellers. Many primates emit howls and screams, while birds use song to let other animals know that they are intruding on their space..


Impact of Deforestation - Loss of Renewable Resources, Wildlife Conflict
(3/1/2005) Deforestation can rob a country of potential renewable revenues while replacing valuable productive lands with virtually useless scrub and grassland. Tropical forests provide important renewable resources that can significantly contribute to national economic growth on a continuing basis..


Ground Reptiles and Amphibians
(3/1/2005) The most abundant vertebrate predators of the forest floor are reptiles, namely snakes and lizards. Best known of forest snakes are the giant constrictors, pythons of the Old World and Australasia, and boas of New World, but many of these are arboreal, aquatic, or relatively small. The majority of the snakes of the forest floor are small to medium sized, nocturnal, and mildly poisonous. They eat a range of amphibians, mammals, small birds, and insects. Very few of these species pose a threat to humans, although some are notorious for inflicting bites. The fer-de-lance viper of the New World, cobras of the Old World, and bushmaster of the New World are well-known examples.


Types of Rainforests
(3/1/2005) Rainforests are found throughout the world, not only in tropical regions, but also in temperate regions like Canada, the United States, and the former Soviet Union. These forests, like tropical rainforests, receive abundant, year-round rainfall, and are characterized by an enclosed canopy and high species diversity, but lack the year-round warmth and sunlight associated with tropical rainforests. However this book focuses on tropical rainforests, and these are the only forest forms discussed here.


Mammals of the Forest Floor
(3/1/2005) As a result of the lack of abundant ground growth, the tropical rainforest supports few large-bodied herbivores and consequently an even smaller population of large predators. The majority of ground-dwelling animals are small to medium-sized creatures that feed on fallen fruits and seeds, saplings, and small prey.


Symbiotic relationships in the rainforest
(3/1/2005) Rainforests are characterized by a unique vegetative structure consisting of several vertical layers including the overstory, canopy, understory, shrub layer, and ground level. The canopy refers to the dense ceiling of leaves and tree branches formed by closely spaced forest trees. The upper canopy is 100-130 feet above the forest floor, penetrated by scattered emergent trees, 130 feet or higher, that make up the level known as the overstory. Below the canopy ceiling are multiple leaf and branch levels known collectively as the understory. The lowest part of the understory, 5-20 feet (1.5-6 meters) above the floor, is known as the shrub layer, made up of shrubby plants and tree saplings..


Saving Rainforests Through Sustainable Development--Agriculture
(3/1/2005) In seeking a "solution" to deforestation of tropical rainforests--whether it be through debt-for-nature-swaps, extractive reserves, selective logging, ecotourism, or another strategy--the ultimate fate of forests rests in the hands of local people. While some would argue that rainforests can be "saved" by restricting economic growth, it is necessary to realize that parks and reserves will not persist unless local communities are persuaded that it is in their material interest to conserve.


African Forest Peoples
(3/1/2005) Today the African rainforest is home to some of the most celebrated tribal people, the so-called "Pygmies" of the Ituri forest in northern Zaire. The tallest of these people, known as the Mbuti, rarely exceed five feet (1.5 m). Besides the Mbuti, there are three other major rainforest peoples of Africa: the Aka (Central African Republic and northern Congo), the Baka (southern Cameroon), and the Twa (central Zaire river basin). Together these groups account for some 130,000 to 170,000 forest dwellers distributed over a large area of forest. The result is low population density; the Mbuti average fewer than one person for every one-and-a-half square miles (four square kilometers).


Threats to Tropical Rivers and Lakes
(3/1/2005) Tropical rainforest waters are highly threatened today by hydroelectric projects, erosion from deforestation, overfishing, and poisoning from oil and chemical spills. The effects from the degradation of these waters are widespread, inflicting damage on the global economy, the environment, and local peoples..


Human Threats to Rainforests - Subsistence Activities
(3/1/2005) At least 60 percent of tropical deforestation is caused by subsistence activities on a local level by people who simply use the rainforest's resources for their survival. Having neither the money nor the political power to acquire holdings on productive lands, these transient settlers follow and settle along roads constructed in the rainforest by development or extractive firms. After cutting trees for building material, these people use the slash-and-burn technique to clear the surrounding forest for short-term agriculture. First, understory shrubbery is cleared and then forest trees not used as construction material. The area is left to dry for a few months and is then burned. The land is planted with crops like bananas, palms, manioc, maize, or rice. After a year or two, the productivity of the soil declines, and the transient farmers press a little deeper and clear additional forest for more short-term agricultural land. The old, now infertile fields are left for waste or sometimes used for small-scale cattle grazing.


Impact of Agriculture in the Rainforest
(3/1/2005) Agricultural use of some rainforest land proves to be a failure because of the nutrient-deficient, acidic soils of these forests. Nevertheless, many commercial agricultural projects are still carried out on rainforest lands, although many of these revert to cattle pasture after soils are depleted. Some floodplain regions, like those of the lower Amazon (varzea), are more suitable for commercial agriculture because annual floods replenish nutrient stores.


Saving the rainforest with medicinal drugs; natural, plant-derived pesticides
(3/1/2005) The rainforest may someday provide the cure for AIDS, pancreatic cancer, antibiotic-resistant staph infections, lassa fever, or Alzheimer's disease, if given the chance to do so. Unfortunately, as primary forest cover is diminished by 1-2 percent every year, it is projected that 20-25 percent of the world's plant species will be extinct by the year 2015. Perhaps in some remote Andean valley, slated for destruction today, lives a rare orchid which has developed an anti-viral chemical that kills HIV, halts cancer, or slows aging. In addition, the shamans who provide much of the insight into identifying these plants and their uses, are disappearing at an even faster rate as their villages seek a more Western lifestyle. These shamans are generally elders and when they die, their unique knowledge of traditional uses of rainforest plants will die with them..


Saving Rainforests with Medicinal Drugs
(3/1/2005) Plants have broader uses than as just food and a genetic reservoir. Increasingly, rainforest plants, and to a lesser extent rainforest animals, are the source of compounds useful for medicinal purposes. The rainforest has been called the ultimate chemical laboratory with each rainforest species experimenting with various chemical defenses to ensure survival in the harsh world of natural selection. They have been synthesizing these compounds for millions of years to protect against predators, infection, pests, and disease. This makes rainforest species an excellent reservoir of medicines and chemical templates with which researchers can create new drugs..


Saving the Rainforest via Sustainable Development—Large-Scale Products
(3/1/2005) About 40 percent of rainforest deforestation is caused by commercial interests: the logging, cattle, agricultural development, mining, hydroelectric, and other industries. Today these industries are mostly dependent on the one-time exploitation of forest areas and moving on to new patches after those immediate resources have been depleted. These industries are often encouraged by impoverished governments in search of quick and easy revenue. These governments look to the forest as a means of bringing in foreign currency to pay off their debts and to improve their economy in the short term--overlooking the depletion of these important natural capital assets. In doing so, these governments may be retarding future growth and further impoverishing future generations.


Saving Rainforests Through Sustainable Development—Forest Products
(3/1/2005) There are numerous forest products that can be collected in a renewable fashion on a small scale by local peoples. Although poor farmers must still overcome their ignorance of sustainable forest products and difficulties of distribution, the harvesting of forest products without destroying the forest can be more profitable in the long term than the other alternative: destroying the rainforest and using the land for subsistence agriculture for a few years before clearing a new area or selling the wood (assuming it has not been recently logged) to a timber company. Several studies back the economics of sustainable forest use..


Rainforest Ecotourism
(3/1/2005) Ecotourism is rapidly becoming a leading way for developing countries to bring in foreign revenue by preserving their rainforests. Eco-tourists pay to see a country's natural beauty, not the destruction caused by short-run exploitation. Money spent directly in the local economy helps give economic value to forest preservation. The locals, along with the government, can see the importance of keeping the forest intact. Most tourists are willing to pay directly for preservation in the forms of park entrance fees and donations..


Saving the Rain Forest with Secondary Forest Products
(3/1/2005) There is great potential for the development of secondary forest products on a large scale to contribute to local and national income through the global market. Some forest products can be domesticated and cultivated on a widespread basis on highly degraded and formerly forested lands. Many of these products are better suited to the tropical environment and produce greater economic returns at less fiscal and environmental costs.


Increasing Productivity and Rehabilitating Degraded Rainforest Habitat
(3/1/2005) In reducing the loss of tropical rainforests, we must not only be concerned with the transformation of existing natural ecosystems, but also with the more rational utilization of already cleared and degraded areas. To lessen future forest loss we must increase and sustain the productivity of farms, pastures, plantations, and scrub land in addition to restoring species and ecosystems to degraded habitats. By reducing wasteful land-use practices, consolidating gains on existing cleared lands, and improving already developed lands we can diminish the need to clear additional rainforest..


Rainforest Canopy - Primates
(3/1/2005) Primates are characteristic of every continental rainforest realm, except for the Australasian realm, and are made up of nearly 200 living species in more than 50 genera. Primates are thought to have originated from their insectivore-like ancestors between 100 million and 65 million years ago. The ancient primates most resembled lemurs and the tarsier of today, and upper primates did not appear until 37 to 23 million years ago. Upper primates include monkeys, apes, chimps, and humans, and the non-human species are generally divided into Old World monkeys and New World monkeys.


American Forest Peoples
(3/1/2005) The American rainforests were once home to some of the world's most developed civilizations of antiquity including those of the Incas (Andes), Mayas (Central America), and Aztecs (Central America). These peoples created vast metropolises and made great developments in agriculture and the sciences. However all this changed with the arrival of Europeans in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.


Human Threats to Rainforests - Hydroelectric, Poaching
(3/1/2005) Large hydroelectric projects, funded by international aid and development organizations like the World Bank, have led to widespread forest loss. Besides inundating large tracts of rainforest (dams in the Amazon are generally ecologically inefficient because large tracts of forest are flooded due to the flatness of the basin) and killing off local wildlife, the dams have the effect of destroying aquatic habitats and affecting fish populations, displacing indigenous peoples, and adding carbon to the atmosphere (as the submerged wood rots)..


Global Impact of Deforestation - Climatic Role of Forests
(3/1/2005) Tropical rainforests play a vital role in the functioning of the planet's natural systems. The forests regulate local and global weather through their absorption and creation of rainfall and their exchange of atmospheric gases. For example, the Amazon alone creates 50-80 percent of its own rainfall through transpiration. Cutting the rainforests changes the reflectivity of the earth's surface, which affects global weather by altering wind and ocean current patterns, and changes rainfall distribution. If the forests continue to be destroyed, global weather patterns may become more unstable and extreme.


Rainforest Canopy - Amphibians, Reptiles, Invertebrates
(3/1/2005) Frogs are overwhelmingly the most abundant amphibians in the rainforest. Unlike temperate frogs that are mostly limited to habitats near water, tropical frogs are most abundant in the trees, and relatively few are found near bodies of water on the forest floor. The reason for this is quite simple: frogs must always keep their skin moist since almost half of their respiration in carried out through the skin. The high humidity of the rainforest and frequent rainstorms gives tropical frogs infinitely more freedom to move into the trees and escape the many predators of rainforest waters. The differences between temperate and tropical frogs extend beyond their habitat. Whereas nearly all temperate frogs lay their eggs in water, the majority of rainforest species place eggs in vegetation or lay them in the ground. By leaving the water, frogs avoid egg-predators like fish, shrimp, aquatic insects, and insect larvae. Several species of frogs, including the American glass frogs, lay their eggs on vegetation that overhangs water. The humid climate keeps the eggs moist and when the tadpoles hatch they drop into the water below. Glass frogs are also interesting because they are transparent except for their visible organs and the faint yellow spots that some species possess. These yellow spots resemble a cluster of the frog's eggs, enough to fool predators. Other frog species develop fully into froglets within their eggs, and emerge as fully formed frogs, thus by-passing the tadpole stage altogether..


Reserve Size - Rainforests
(3/1/2005) As forests are set aside as reserves, usually in the regions of the highest diversity, the question of reserve size comes into play. Obviously as much land as possible should be protected to some degree, but whether to keep a single large reservoir or several small reserves has been a controversial issue in conservation biology over the past two decades. Bitter fighting between the two camps in the SLOSS debate (single large or several small) has resulted in squandered time, money, resources, and credibility, and has divided groups that should be united in saving the planet's environment. A single large reserve is advantageous because it possesses larger populations of each species and a more stable environment. On the other hand, a single large reserve is subject to devastation by a single catastrophic event like a fire, flood, or disease. Breaking the reserve into separate pieces reduces the risk of complete population loss by a single event, but diminishes the size of the species populations and puts them at a higher risk of extinction. In addition, if the reserve is too small it may experience system decay resulting in the loss of many species. Small reserves are particularly affected by the invasion of alien species. Studies have shown that domestic mammals will venture up to three miles (5 km) into the rainforest, not only introducing disease and alien plant seeds, but also eating eggs, destroying nests, and crushing seedlings. Finally many species require a certain threshold-population size or range to persist..


Determining Rainforest Reserve Placement
(3/1/2005) After taking note of high-diversity areas and species at greatest risk of extinction, park designers must consider other factors before designating a protected area. It is always important to monitor human use of forest lands before the designation of a national park. The presence of trails, the location of current and predicted human settlement, and land and resource use are all consequential in determining whether the forest land is suitable for protection. If local people are unhappy with restricted access to parklands, chances are they will not respect park boundaries. Along these same lines, planners generally attempt to measure the economic potential of natural forest management of the area as an alternative to deforestation. Also of great importance is the spatial distribution and quality of habitat, Clearly, when given a choice between degraded and natural habitat, it is better to protect the higher-quality area. Researchers also look at species distributions when determining what areas to declare off-limits.


Impact of Deforestation - Soil Erosion
(3/1/2005) The loss of trees, which anchor the soil with their roots, causes widespread erosion throughout the tropics. Only a minority of areas have good soils, which after clearing are quickly washed away by the heavy rains. Thus crop yields decline and the people must spend income to import foreign fertilizers or clear additional forest. Costa Rica loses about 860 million tons of valuable topsoil every year, while the Great Red Island, Madagascar, loses so much soil to erosion (400 tons/ha) that its rivers run blood-red, staining the surrounding Indian Ocean. Astronauts have remarked that it looks like Madagascar is bleeding to death, an apt description of a country with grave environmental degradation and an ever-declining agricultural economy that depends on its soils. The rate of increase for soil loss after forest clearing is astonishing; a study in Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire) found that forested slope areas lost 0.03 tons of soil per year per hectare; cultivated slopes annually lost 90 tons per hectare, while bare slopes lost 138 tons per hectare.


Biogeographical Forest Realms--Where Rainforests Are Located
(3/1/2005) The majority of tropical rainforests are found in four biogeographic realms: the Afrotropical (mainland Africa, Madagascar, and scattered islands), the Australian (Australia, New Guinea, and the Pacific Islands), the Indomalayan (India, Sri Lanka, mainland Asia, and Southeast Asia), and the Neotropical (South America, Central America, and the Caribbean islands).


Human Threats to Rainforests - Fuelwood, Roads, Climate
(3/1/2005) FAO estimates that 40 percent of the world (2.6 billion people) rely on fuelwood or charcoal as their primary source of energy for cooking and heating. Fuelwood consumption has increased 250 percent since 1960 (the world's population only increased by 90 percent since 1960).


How to Save Tropical Rainforests - Introduction
(3/1/2005) Today tropical rainforests are disappearing from the face of the globe. Despite growing international concern, rainforests continue to be destroyed at a pace exceeding 80,000 acres (32,000 hectares) per day. World rainforest cover now stands at around 2.5 million square miles (6 million square kilometers), an area about the size of the contiguous 48 United States or Australia and representing around 5 percent of the world's land surface. Much of this remaining area has been impacted by human activities and no longer retains its full original biodiversity..


Impact of Deforestation - Atmospheric Role of Forests
(3/1/2005) Rainforests play the important role of locking up atmospheric carbon in their vegetation via photosynthesis. The vegetation and soils of the world's forests contain about 125 percent of the carbon found in the atmosphere. When forests are burned, degraded, or cleared, the opposite effect occurs: large amounts of carbon are released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide along with other greenhouse gases (nitrous oxide, methane, and other nitrogen oxides). The burning of forests releases about two billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, or about 22 percent of anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide.


Human Threats to Rainforests - War
(3/1/2005) War can be a blessing in disguise or a curse to the rainforest, depending on the course of events that surrounds the war, and the situation before the outbreak of the war.


Human Threats to Rainforests - Intro
(3/1/2005) The greatest cause of tropical rainforest destruction today comes from human activities, which, unlike natural damage, are unrelenting and extremely thorough. Although much of this deforestation is driven by national and international economic forces, the majority serves no long-term purpose; it results from subsistence activities on a local level. Many of the effects from human-induced destruction of the rainforests are probably irreversible within our time..


Natural Threats to Rainforests
(3/1/2005) Throughout their existence, tropical rainforests have been affected by natural forces like fire, drought, and storms. These events occur on a random basis and can damage large stretches of rainforest. However, the damage caused by these natural occurrences is generally different from that caused by human activities; namely in that the forest loss is not complete and parts of the ecosystem continue to function. From the surviving remnants of the ecosystem, the forest can usually rapidly regenerate. Within a few years, the forest diversity can return to or exceed the diversity that existed before the disturbance. Some studies have suggested that these periodic occurrences are an important ingredient to a forest's diversity. Without these events, scientists believe, some forests cannot reach their fully dynamic state. Researches have found that forest turnover rates may be as short as 65-135 years..


Forces Behind the Loss of Tropical Rainforests
(3/1/2005) As the first seven sections of this site have described, tropical rainforests are incredibly rich ecosystems that play a fundamental role in the basic functioning of the planet. Rainforests are home to probably 50 percent of the world's species, making them an extensive library of biological and genetic resources. In addition, rainforests help maintain the climate by regulating atmospheric gases and stabilizing rainfall, protect against desertification, and provide numerous other ecological functions.



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