Also in this section:
Saving the Rainforest
Rainforest Protection Organisations
THE
STORY OF THE RAINFOREST
Millions
of years ago, when the Glaciers of the last Ice Age started to lose their
grip on the earth and melt forming the seas and oceans, vegetation started
to grow in the exposed fertile land. These primitive plants were the start
of the Rainforests.
As the Earth's weather patterns were at first very erratic these plants
evolved to be able to cope with the extreme conditions of flood and drought
and could quickly take advantage of the situation, either conserving water
and nutrients or greedily taking them from their surroundings when conditions
permitted.
Nutrients were stored within the plants to prevent them from
being washed away by flooding and shiny-waxed leaves stopped water from
evaporating. Gradually the forest spread and with the splitting of the
continents fragments ended up divided by thousands of miles of water,
leaving each one to evolve independently. Now we find Rainforests all
over the world, mainly stretching in a belt around the waist of the Earth.
The forests continue to evolve and each is unique, we can however split
them into four main 'types': Lowland Rainforests are
found around sea level, these are the richest and densest. Swamp
forests are found inland; they are very wet and have poor drainage.
This means that vast quantities of water are held within the forest. Mangrove
forests are found where the land meets the sea and Cloud
forests are very mossy and found high above sea level.
The
main thing that links all these different types of rainforests is water.
Annual rainfall is between 80 - 400 inches (203 - 1016cms)! The water
is held for a short time then slowly released into the rivers and evaporated
back into the atmosphere to fall again as rain.
By recycling the water
in this way, rainforests help to stabilise global weather patterns, they
also, through photosynthesis, recycle the harmful Carbon Dioxide produced
by human use of fossil fuels.
Many items used in our daily lives are products of the rainforests.
Some are harvested and produced in-situ (actually within the forests)
but some are now produced outside them. These products include: chocolate,
chewing gum, chickens, perfumes, spices and even medicines. In fact the
medical properties of rainforest plants have been used for thousands of
years by native inhabitants and today the modern world uses them for:
birth control, Aspirin, treatment of malaria, heart disease and Leukaemia.
Perhaps our scientists will discover more medicines to treat diseases
such as cancer and AIDS in the rainforests of the world, but they will
have to work quickly as our rainforests are disappearing at an alarming
rate.
Recent estimates have put the rate of destruction at over 50 million
acres per year, that's an area the size of England, Scotland and Wales
put together! Logging, cattle ranching, farming, mining and damming are
the major causes.
The disappearance of the rainforests is altering weather patterns,
causing major soil erosion, loss of habitat for already endangered species
and more importantly causing the EXTINCTION of one species of plant or
animal every hour!
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