Category Rainforests

Cloud forests are usually found in tropical rainforests of South America, Southeast Asia and Africa.

A cloud forest is constantly enveloped by dense clouds that penetrate right through the ground. This creates some unique conditions- very moist and misty environment, thick vegetation with a lot of moss growth, boggy forest floors, constant sounds of water dripping (from fog that condenses and falls off the leaves) and very low visibility.

Cloud forests are usually found in tropical rainforests of South America, Southeast Asia and Africa. These forests are also referred to as fog forests, or moss forests. Cloud forests attract researchers who like to study the abundant species of water-loving plants, animals and birds that are found there. They are a source of pure fresh water.

A large percentage of the biodiversity contained within these forests is yet to be catalogued. Species thought to be extinct have been discovered in these forests.

Some of the cloud forests have become popular travel destinations. The Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve is referred to as one of the “seven wonders of Costa Rica” and it attracts about 70,000 tourists annually. It is known to contain the largest number of orchids in the world. Cloud forests are now a concern for conservationists and The Cloud Forest Agenda Report of the UNEP and UNESCO seeks to initiate action to preserve cloud forests.

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In protecting and preserving rainforests, we are merely preserving our future.  The year is 2070. Kids are on an expedition to a part of the Amazon rainforest and are clueless when their teachers throw around words such as “Spider monkey” and “Harpy eagle”. What else could they be, for, they have never heard about these erstwhile creatures that became extinct well before their time? Back to the present. Today, in 2022, did you know that about 17 % of the Amazon rainforest, the largest in the world, has been destroyed over the last five decades? It is time to wake up and smell the forest fire.

Rainforests are home to some of the most biologically diverse and important ecosystems in the world more than half of Earth’s plants and animals are found in them. June 22 was World Rainforests Day, and doesn’t it make sense that one of our most important natural resources has a day dedicated to it? In a bid to raise awareness and encourage action to protect the world’s rainforests, the first World Rainforest Day was celebrated on June 22, 2017, by the Rainforest Partnership, an international non-profit.

Fear factor

So, how serious is the threat to rainforests? In an interview, Gabriel Labbate, head, United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEPS) Climate Mitigation Unit, shed some light on the issue. “There are worrying signs that some of these systems may be close to tipping points. For example, an article I read in the last six months documented clear signs that the Amazon was losing resilience. The Amazon is like a gigantic recycler, a water pump. Water may be recycled up to five times as it travels from the southeast to the northwest of the Amazon. When rain falls on trees and vegetation, part of it is absorbed, and part of it goes back up into the air following evapotranspiration. You stop this water pump and the whole system may transform into a savannah because there is not enough water left to sustain a tropical forest. There will be a cascade of impacts following the disappearance of an ecosystem like that.”

While Labbate has spoken specifically about the Amazon Rainforest, the danger to other rainforests is just as real. Many of them have suffered from heavy logging for their hardwoods, slash-and-burn cultivation, and forest fires, throughout the 20th century. Consequently, the area covered by rainforests around the world is shrinking, and large numbers of multiple species are being driven to extinction

Almost 90% of West Africa’s rainforests have been ravaged, as have two-thirds of Madagascars. In fact, the situation turned so dire that several countries, most specifically Brazil, declared deforestation a national emergency, and it was instrumental in slowing down the damage from 2004 to 2012. deforestation reduced by about 80 % in the country.

While it is arduous to completely reverse the effects of rainforest destruction, here are a few steps you can take to tackle the problem:

• Start by reading more about it and teach others about the importance of the environment and how they can help save rainforests.
• Try and restore damaged ecosystems by planting trees on land where forests have been cut down.
• Encourage people to live in a sustainable manner, one that won’t harm the environment.
• While not all of us have the resources financial or otherwise to protect) rainforests and wildlife on a large scale, it is possible to support organisations that help minimise damage to the environment. The time is ripe. Spread the word.

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Rainforests are regions that consist of several tall trees, most of which are evergreen ones, and receive a large quantity of rainfall. They play an important role in taking in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and so, are often referred to as the lungs of the planet. They host an impressive variety of wildlife, and also influence weather patterns elsewhere in the world. All continents except Antartica house rainforests. The Amazon in South America is the world’s largest rainforest.

Tropical rainforests are home to 80 percent of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity, all squeezed into a narrow strip of equatorial land. They are also home to millions of human beings that have been a part of forest ecosystem for thousands of years. While tropical rainforests are perhaps the most iconic, temperate rainforests are equally diverse and beautiful. Together, rainforests offer a gallery of the most beautiful, awe-inspiring places and creatures on Earth.

Since the beginning of history, humans have relied on rainforests, finding in them a steady supply of wood, plants, and animals, as well as fruits, fibers, grains, medicines, cloths, resins, pigments, and other materials. As millennia passed and many human communities moved farther away from the forest, our reliance on the forests did not weaken. Major trade routes, and even empires, developed to control the flow of the rainforest’s treasures.

Today, most of the industrialized world senses little connection to the rainforest, living in large, busy cities far away from these fertile ecological powerhouses. We forget that the forest regularly saves our global food supply by offering new, disease-resistant crops. We forget about the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of trade in timber, non-timber forest products and forest-derived pharmaceuticals. We forget about things that are ultimately beyond value: the livelihoods of millions of forest communities, a stable and livable climate for us all, the existence of most of our fellow species, and simple things we take for granted, like regular rain and clean air.

In tropical nations, many developing and debt-ridden, the forest is cleared in the hope of securing an economic future. Huge industrial interests—such as timber, agriculture, and mining—see an endless, profitable supply of cheap resources just waiting to be taken. Meanwhile, family farmers and loggers feel they have no option but to deforest in order to feed their families. However, innumerable studies and recent history show that little security can be found in tropical deforestation.

Thus far, our human family has erased half of our original endowment of rainforests. Our world is now facing a sixth mass extinction—the greatest extinction crisis since the fall of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The future of over half of Earth’s plants and animals—and hundreds of human cultures—will be determined within the next few decades. Since our lives are so dependent on the forest’s bounty, our future is at stake as well.

Credit : Rainforest aligns 

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Discussions on the perils faced by this iconic South American rainforest focus invariably on Brazil. However, the lingering political crisis in Peru, where the second-largest part of the Amazon lies, has also been simultaneously affecting the inhabitants of the region.

The political crisis

Peru has descended into one of the worst political crises in its history, and the protection of its Amazon rainforest is failing, according to a report published recently. Peru is home to the second-largest portion of the Amazon rainforest after Brazil. The country had pledged to stop deforestation by 2021.

The South American country has been immersed in political turbulence since 2016. Corruption scandals and disputes between the executive and legislative branches of government have led to intense turnover-four Presidents in five years. Peru’s current President, leftist outsider Pedro Castillo has already survived two impeachment attempts since he took office in July 2021.

The Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), an initiative of the nonprofit Amazon

Conservation Association, reports that deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon has hit six historical highs in the last 10 years. The analysis is based on data from the University of Maryland, the U.S., which has kept records since 2002.

The worst year ever was 2020 when Peru lost around 4,20,000 acres of Amazon rainforest. Last year, that number declined, but still ranked as the sixth highest on record. Peruvian official data, which only goes through 2020, agrees.

Corrupt actors who benefit from environmental crime, together with the political crisis have resulted in a lack of govemment ability to fight environmental crime, the report said “What’s more, the Peruvian government continues to prioritize economic development over the protection of the Amazon rainforest.” The Igarape Institute commissioned the report from InSight Crime, a non-profit organisation focussed on investigating crime in Latin America

As in Brazil’s Amazon, cattle ranching and agriculture are the main drivers of deforestation. Agribusiness companies and poor migrants from other parts of Peru seize land illegally. Other illegal activities that harm the forest are gold mining, logging, and coca plantations.

The report titled The Roots of Environmental Crime in the Peruvian Amazon, identifies three actors behind deforestation: big businesses, such as palm oil companies: entrepreneurial criminal networks, which profit from the trade in timber, land or drugs, and cheap labour poorly paid workers who cut down trees and plant coca crops.

The Brazil problem

The largest portion of the Amazon lies in Brazil – within its borders the country holds roughly 60 % of the total forest area. It is also the country in which the forest has faced its worst decline. Deforestation has been happening here for more than five decades, and reports show that it has reached alarming heights under the current President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration, thanks to his encouragement of agriculture and mining and weakening of environmental protections in the region. In fact, in 2021, the deforestation in the Amazon was the highest since 2006. Apart from agriculture and cattle ranching, infrastructure development, forest fires, mining, and illegal logging are causes for widespread deforestation. Here’s something to put the level of destruction into perspective – “every minute an area of Amazon rainforest roughly equivalent to 5 football pitches is cut down”, according to WWF. The commercial exploitation has left us with a scenario that appears grim – scientists warn that the region “is approaching a critical tipping point at which the damage is irreversible”.

Why is the Amazon important?

There’s a reason the Amazon is often referred to as “the lungs of the Earth” – it produces at least 5% of the world’s total oxygen, and has played a crucial role in climate regulation. Not just that. For years, it has functioned as a ‘carbon sink, meaning it absorbs more carbon than it emits. However, that’s no longer the case. Scientists have discovered that the region now emits more carbon than it takes in. And the resultant impact on the environment is beginning to show – hotter temperatures, more forest fires, changing weather patterns altering habitats, etc. All of these affect not just the three million wildlife species dependent on the region for survival but also the hundreds of indigenous tribes that call the place home. Several of them have been displaced already, and many have their lands occupied illegally. When the forest disappears, it takes along with it its inhabitants and their culture, leaving in its wake a world that’s altered forever.

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