Theats to biodiversity and the environment
More than half of the world’s rainforests have been destroyed by humans and their demand for wood and arable land. The most serious threats that tropical rainforests face include: logging, cattle industries, creating roads and agriculture. Rainforests used to cover over 14% of the world’s surface but currently only cover around 6%. If these incredible deforestation rates continue, the world’s most amazing and diverse forests could disappear in the next hundred years. Deforestation affects biodiversity in a number of ways. Trees that are removed from a particular area for farming, roads and wood products contain many species of living organisms, which depend on those trees for food and shelter. So when trees are removed or destroyed in large numbers, the species that live there lose their natural habitat, therefore, the entire ecosystem will quickly be affected. Many of these species are not able to cope with the dramatic change. When there are few species living in an area, it means a less biologically diverse environment.
Human Impacts on tropical trainforests
Human activity has had a major negative impact upon tropical rainforests. Threats such as logging, cattle industries, creating roads and agriculture all play a huge part in destroying our rainforests. Did you know that a slice of a rainforest the size of a football field is cut down every second in every day? Therefore, 86,400 football fields of rainforest are being cut down per day and over 31 million football fields of rainforest are cut down each year. Deforestation in rainforests can also lead to soil erosion, which can have devastating effects on the environment. Without trees and plants keeping the soil clean, damp and healthy, the soil can dry out and become more vulnerable to diseases, therefore making it infertile. Click the picture to watch video.
How can we help save our rainforests?
· Use less paper. This can be done by sending emails for work and school instead of printing it out on paper.
· Encourage schools to educate their students about the importance of the rainforests.
· Always look for FSC certification when buying wooden furniture.
· Reuse, reduce and recycle!
· Donate money to Government companies that support the Amazon Rainforest or to a rainforest rescue page like these: https://rainforestrescue.sky.com/our-campaign/how-your-money-helps http://www.rainforest-rescue.org/?gclid=CNCdvcPlxboCFc1bpQodwmoARg
· Saving trees! Coconut palms are a good source of hardwood and are easily grown. Tangaloa (found in northern Fiji) claims that they have enough coconut palms to produce enough hardwood equivalent to 1 million rainforest trees.
· Encourage schools to educate their students about the importance of the rainforests.
· Always look for FSC certification when buying wooden furniture.
· Reuse, reduce and recycle!
· Donate money to Government companies that support the Amazon Rainforest or to a rainforest rescue page like these: https://rainforestrescue.sky.com/our-campaign/how-your-money-helps http://www.rainforest-rescue.org/?gclid=CNCdvcPlxboCFc1bpQodwmoARg
· Saving trees! Coconut palms are a good source of hardwood and are easily grown. Tangaloa (found in northern Fiji) claims that they have enough coconut palms to produce enough hardwood equivalent to 1 million rainforest trees.
There is a company in Mexico-Forest Stewardship Council, (FSC) which keeps a careful eye on rainforests all over the world. The FSC give stamps to legal timber and that way people all around the world will know the forest it came from is being properly managed.