Tropical forests
A rainforest is a thick of tall trees which is found in tropical areas where there is a lot of rain. The largest rainforests are in the Amazon River Basin (South America), the Congo River Basin (western Africa), and throughout much of southeast Asia. Smaller rainforests are located in Central America, Madagascar, Australia and nearby islands, India, and other locations in the tropics.
Due to human intervention, today more than 40% of the worlds original forests have gone, for example, In 1950, 30% of the earth was covered by tropical forest. By 1975, only 12% was left and in 2002 they now cover only about 6% of the earth land. Forests exploited for wood and new agricultural terraces. If deforestation process will not be stopped or controlled, it will lead to appearance of big problems for those who is living and working in forests, for all humans as well.
Rainforests should be protected due to their big importance for all the world, and below are just several reasons for that:
- For many indigenous and other forest-dependent people, forests are their livelihood. They provide them with edible and medicinal plants, bush meat, fruits and many other goods, as well as with cultural and spiritual values. Without forests those communities will die.
- The US Cancer Institute has identified more than 2000 tropical rainforests plants with potential to fight cancer. And yet, as forests come down, such plants – and the hopes they embody – are destroyed. Besides, in rainforests are other important plants such as quinine, which acts against, malaria and armadillo that is helping us find a cure for leprosy.
- Rainforests influence the carbon cycle. Green plants take up carbon dioxide, which they convert to sugars by means of photosynthesis, a process during which oxygen is realized into the air. In other words, rainforest are lungs of our world.
- Rainforests have a profound effect on rainfall. The uneven surface of treetops causes air turbulence that increases the amount of water evaporating from the forest. This forms clouds that fall is rain. If forests disappear, less rain will fall, it will drain more quickly, and soil temperature will rise. Forest clearance may be the cause of widespread soil erosion that can lead to ecological disaster, for example, soil erosion may have contributed to disastrous flooding in Bangladesh.
The loss of tropical rainforests has a profound and devastating impact on the world because rainforests are so biologically diverse, more so than other ecosystems on Earth. It is important for us to preserve the rainforest because of the people, animals, and plants that are in it.