Saving the Rain Forest

1. Saving the Rain Forest

2. example some plants produce small housing structures and sugar for ants. In return the ants protect the plants from other insects that may want to feed on the plant's leaves. What Makes a Rain Forest • 1. Location/rainforests are located in the tropics near the equator • 2.Rainfall/ Rainforests get at least 80 inches of rain a year • 3.Canopy/ Rainforests have a canopy which is a layer of branches and leaves formed by closely spaced rainforest trees. Most plants and animals live in the canopy. The canopy may be up to 150 feet tall. • 4.Biodiversity/ Rainforests have a high level of biological diversity or biodiversity. About half of the plants and animals in the world live in rainforests. • 5.Symbolic Relationships/ . A symbiotic relationship is a relationship where two different species benefit by helping each other. For example some plants produce small housing structures and sugar for ants. In return the ants protect the plants from other insects that may want to feed on the plant's leaves.

3. Areas in The world where Rainforests are located • CENTRAL AMERICA • This region was once entirely covered with rainforest, but large areas have been cleared for cattle ranching and for sugar cane plantations. Like other major rainforests, the jungles and mangrove swamps of Central America contain many plants and animals found nowhere else.  Central America is famous for its large number of tropical birds, including many kinds of parrots. • THE AMAZON • The Amazon jungle is the world's largest tropical rainforest.  The forest covers the basin of the Amazon, the world's second longest river. The Amazon is home to the greatest variety of plants and animals on Earth.  A 1/5 of all the world's plants and birds and about 1/10 of all mammal species are found there. • AFRICA • Central Africa holds the world's second largest rainforest.  To the south east, the large island of Madagascar was once intensively forested, but now much of it is gone. • Africa contains areas of high cloud forest, mangrove swamps and flooded forests.  The island of Madagascar is home to many unique plants and animals not found anywhere else. • Southern Asia • The rainforests of Asia stretch from India and Burma in the west to Malaysia and the islands of Java and Borneo in the east.  Bangladesh has the largest area of mangrove forests in the world.In Southeast Asia the climate is hot and humid all year round. In the mainland Asia it has a subtropical climate with torrential monsoon rains followed by a drier period. • AUSTRALASIA • Millions of years ago, Australia, New Zealand and the island of New Guinea formed part of a great forested southern continent, isolated from the rest of the world.   Today these countries contain many different species of animal that occur nowhere else.Undergrowth in Australia's tropical forests is dense and lush.  The forests lie in the path of wet winds blowing in from the Pacific

4. Why we need Rainforests • 1. The plants in the rainforests generate a lot of the Earth’s oxygen • 2. The plants in the rainforest remove carbon dioxide and store it in their • roots, stems, leaves and branches • 3. By turning CO2 into clean air, rainforests help fight pollution • 4. Destroying the rainforests will increase global warming because more • CO2 will be released into the atmosphere. • 5. Rainforests also absorb other chemical such as nitrous oxide. • 6. Rainforests help to maintain a balanced climate. • 7. The rainforests clean and recycle water • 8. Rainforests cause large amounts of water to evaporate into the • atmosphere • 9. More than two thirds of the world’s plant species live in tropical • rainforests. • 10. The rainforest is home to many unique plants and animals not found • anywhere else • 11. Many species have or will become extinct if the rainforests are • destroyed. • 12. The plants of the rainforest are used in medicines that fight may • diseases and illnesses like cancer, leukemia and heart disease. • 13. The rainforests contain important plants that may cure more diseases • in the future. • 14. Less than 1% of the world's tropical forest plants have been tested for • pharmaceutical properties, yet at least 25% of all modern drugs came • originally from rainforests • 15. The rainforest is home to 30 million species. Without the rainforest • these plants and animals would die. • 16. One river in the Brazilian rainforest was found to contain more species

5. 14. Less than 1% of the world's tropical forest plants have been tested for • pharmaceutical properties, yet at least 25% of all modern drugs came • originally from rainforests • 15. The rainforest is home to 30 million species. Without the rainforest • these plants and animals would die. • 16. One river in the Brazilian rainforest was found to contain more species • of fish than all the rivers in the USA • 17. Industry uses many products from the rainforest such as rubber • 18. A lot of the food we eat originally comes from the rainforest e.g. • bananas, pineapples, peanuts • 19. Tropical rainforests cover about 7% of the Earth’s surface and they are • very important to the Earth’s ecosystem. • 20. 50,000,000 tribal people live in the rain forests. These people depend • on the rainforests for their food and shelter. • 21. Rainforests act as a kind of ‘heat pump, redistributing solar energy. • 22. Rainforests warm temperate zones and cool the tropics by • redistributing solar energy. • 23. The rainforests are wonderful places to visit • Imagine rainforests as huge sponges or watersheds soaking up • the rain and storing it, releasing a little at a time. In streams and • When the forest is removed, there is no longer any sponge to absorb • the water and the result is massive flooding, soil

6. Why Rainforests are in danger • As the human populations increase, more and more room is needed, so rainforests are bulldozed or burnt down for room for houses, roads, farms, etc. • Some poor countries have found a way to make quick money by selling rainforest trees for lumber.

7. Why rainforests plants and animals are in danger • The rainforest is a region rich in biodiversity. Richer than any other biological region of our planet. However, it is not the largest biological region, nor is it protected in many areas in which it grows. Thus there are innumerable candidates which would fit your question. Many of these species are unknown to science, and may vanish before being documented. • In South America, many species of animal, including Jaguar, some sloths, some cayman, many monkeys, birds, and innumerable insects (which sadly merit little of our concern) are endangered. • In the rainforest's of Western Africa, Forest Elephant, Western and Eastern Gorilla, Bonabo, chimpanzee, Okapi, (once again) many insects, and many others are endangered. • In the rainforests of Northern Australia, Cassowary, tree Kangaroo, birds of paradise, and some Achidna are endangered. In Asia, Lions, Tigers, Asian Elephant, Orangutan, Clouded and Borenan Clouded Leopards, Rhino (of two species), and many other species are all endangered. Many of these species are Critically Endangered, and all require our aid to survive

8. Alternate locations for land developers • Some alternate locations for land developers would be some of the wide open plains of Africa. There they could get some trees and other supplies needed for land development.

9. Malaria • Malaria is a disease that can be cured by the bark of the cinchona tree which produces quinine

10. Muscle relaxant • Curare is a vine extract used by indigenous peoples to poison arrows and darts. It is also a muscle relaxant used in surgery.

11. Poisonous frogs • Strokes, seizure, depression and Alzheimer's disease caused by a poisonous frog secretions called Phyllomedusa bicolor