Each of us can save the rainforest. How forests are saved in different countries What needs to be done to save tropical forests

A rainforest is any area of ​​the world that is heavily overgrown tree species and receives a lot of rainfall. In many places, rainforest plants are being destroyed, which has already resulted in the loss of many of the animals that normally live there. Preservation rainforest is an attempt by many people and organizations to protect and conserve the rainforests, as well as the plant and animal life in them.

In general, the rainforest receives at least 100 inches (254 cm) of precipitation per year, and sometimes much more. The temperature in the temperate rainforest rarely rises above 20°C, while the temperature in the rainforest rarely falls below that and it never freezes. Temperate rainforests are limited to a very small part of the world, including the northwest coast of the United States of America and small areas of Australia and Chile.

Typically, when people talk about rainforest conservation, they don't just mean the Amazon rainforest. They cover large territories South America, Africa and Southeast Asia, as well as many islands north of Australia. Rainforests are under threat of destruction due to human activities coupled with a lack of understanding of the full impact of the environment.

One of the significant challenges that rainforests face in their survival is the struggle for the survival of those who live in them (meaning both the people who live in them and the animals). Some of them have developed farming methods called cut and burn - they cut down a large area of ​​trees and burn it to destroy any native vegetation. They would then use the area for agriculture for several years before the land was depleted and people were forced to move on. The cycle will repeat itself and the result will be large, barren areas that will no longer support people, vegetation, or animals.

Some groups of people working to save the rainforest realize that these locals are just trying to survive. Instead of banning their agricultural activities, which would be difficult in best case ensure these conservationists offer alternatives. Many rainforest dwellers have found that by working with rainforest conservation groups, they actually get a better life.

Ecotourism is one of the ways that people who live in the rainforest can make a living. Instead of destroying their land to earn a living that will remain meager at best, these people work to preserve the natural beauty of their home and show it off to tourists. They learned that tourists would pay to come to such unspoiled places, and the money that visitors bring in provides good life for those who have used fire-burning methods in the past. Careful use natural resources is another way to conserve rainforests. Some companies in more developed countries work with those who live in the rainforests. Companies buy products such as Brazil nuts and mahogany that grow naturally in the tropics.

The rainforest is home to many plant and animal species. But since, as before, the process of its destruction is underway, there is a danger that in the 21st century it will disappear from the surface of the Earth.

   rescue action

   In the Amazon, in some parts of Africa, in the territories of Guinea and the Congo, in the Malay Archipelago, from the western mountain ranges of India in the mountainous islands in pacific ocean, in Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands.

What needs to be done

   Almost 29 million hectares of tropical forests are being destroyed every year. If this rate of their destruction continues, then in 2035 there will not even be one square meter of tropical forests left. Earth satellite images showed that almost a tenth of the Amazon forests burned down in 1988. In fact, such large areas of rainforest were burning that planes at the airfield in La Paz - a city located in the Andes at an altitude of 1500 m - could not take off due to thick smoke. Observers could see a strip of fire several thousand kilometers long. Before this happened, it seemed that it would be impossible for a person to destroy such huge tracts of forest in such a short time.

What we can do
   Rainforests could be saved through agricultural reform, but such fundamental changes should have begun much earlier. On the other hand, forests cannot be made inviolable, because man still needs their riches. Therefore, it is necessary to find a way to restore the destroyed territories.
   It is necessary to support the actions of environmentalists based on pressure on the governments of individual states.
   By supporting fast-growing tree planting campaigns, we are saving entire tracts of tropical forests from being cut down.    You can also deliberately boycott hardwood from the rainforest.

   Deforestation will not only lead to the death of thousands of animal species, but also to climate change in the globe which could lead to disaster for all mankind.

WHAT IS A TROPICAL FOREST

   The rainforest covers an area of ​​ten million square kilometers. It forms a multi-tiered living space, a complex collection of animal and plant communities living in the only one in a peculiar climate, which they also influence. Almost all life in the rainforest is concentrated at a height of 30 m above the ground.
   Construction timber: Approximately 4.5 million hectares of forest are cleared annually to meet the demand for mahogany, teak and ebony. Hardwood has been growing for hundreds of years. It is difficult to replace it with others or grow it on plantations.
   Livestock: there is flexible international market cheap beef. Most of it comes from South America. Entrepreneurs buy huge areas of tropical forests and burn them, thus obtaining fields for pastures. After a few years, the animals destroy all the vegetation and the livestock breeders move on.
   Mining: open pit mining of bauxite in Brazil has destroyed gigantic areas of forests and arable land. By law, these areas must be restored, but most firms ignore these requirements.
   Soil erosion: arable land at the site of uprooting the forest becomes barren after 10 years. Land devoid of trees does not accumulate rainwater and is easily washed away.
   River pollution: cutting down trees in upstream poses a threat to the existence of fish along the entire length of the river.
   Floods and diseases: The climate is changing as a result of deforestation. If the forest does not absorb water, the rains will change the river system and cause floods. But if there is no rain, then droughts will lead to an epidemic of typhus or cholera.

   What processes take place in the rainforest
   1. Leaves retain rainwater. Some plants are able to accumulate it.
   2. Water flows down the stems of trees and soaks into the ground.
   3. A small amount of water flows into streams and rivers, but most of it is absorbed by tree roots.
   4. The roots of trees absorb water, which rises through special vessels even to a height of 65 m.
   5. Water evaporates from the crowns of trees, and as a result, clouds appear in the sky containing up to a billion liters of water.

TROPICAL FOREST THREATS

   Almost all tropical forests are located in third world countries. locals consider the forest as a source of their income. Through the sale of industrial wood, hospitals and schools are financed, and the economic development of countries is also supported. The number of people on our planet is constantly growing. To survive, people need food and cultivated land, and they also need to use wood to build and heat their homes. Around each new settlement, forests are cut down, and land is given over to agricultural fields. As soon as the land ceases to be productive, people move further inland forest areas. 300,000,000 people annually destroy seven million hectares of forest.

LIFE IS AT RISK

   Man eats a small number of plants and animals that are found in the tropics. Science is trying to develop new species, and the rainforest gives it a wide genetic material.
   There are many plants growing in tropical forests that a person could consume, in addition, there is a large amount of natural raw materials that a person could use for his own purposes. Thus, a tenth of all medicines used by people are made on the basis of components extracted from tropical forests. However, we still know little about rainforest plants.
   More important fact is that the atmosphere on which we depend, to a certain extent, arises from the exchange of nitrogen and carbon dioxide. This exchange takes place in tropical plants who process sunlight into energy. Therefore, tropical forests are sometimes also called the "lungs" of the Earth.
   Rainforests in in large numbers absorb energy from the sun. Now that they are being destroyed en masse, the ability of the Earth's surface to reflect Sun rays. And this leads to a violation of heat exchange and leads to a change atmospheric conditions and rhythm of precipitation, which in turn affects climate change around the globe.
   In 1987, 200 thousand km of tropical forest were burned in Brazil. The measurements carried out showed that 500,000,000 tons of ozone and carbon dioxide got into the atmosphere.

Saving the forest from destruction is the most important task for each of us. After all, forest resources are very necessary for people. The construction of houses, railways and ships, the manufacture of various products is not complete without wood. The need for the use of wood is extremely high, so the problem of deforestation has arisen. We just couldn't get around this topic, as a company that is engaged in the construction of wooden structures, and decided to study how to different countries save the forest.

On our planet, the forest is the focus of life and the habitat of a huge number of living organisms, due to which the Earth is also called the green planet. But today, only about half of all the forests that originally covered the planet remain. The concept of conquest has been defining in the relationship between man and the forest for several centuries. People simply cut down the forest that hindered the development of their activities, or used it as a commodity for profit. Such a consumerist and irresponsible attitude to nature, of course, did not go unpunished. After deforestation, erosion ate the soil, the rivers became covered with silt, fertile lands became impoverished, agriculture fell into decay and, as a result, the whole civilization. Here we can give a bitter example of the degeneration of the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean, Central America. The saddest thing is that over the past decades, the process of deforestation has only continued to gain momentum. That is, everyone knows about the problem, but they do not attach any importance to it, living here and now, without thinking at all about future generations and about what kind of world they will live in...

In February 2014, the World Resources Institute and Google launched a map that uses resources from Google Maps and Google Earth real-time display of deforestation and forest growth around the world. The Global Forest Watch map can be found at: www.globalforestwatch.org

Such an important project is designed to monitor the situation with deforestation and reforestation in dynamics, in order to quickly respond and take measures to prevent and limit the loss forest resources Earth. The data on the map has been provided since 2000, pink felled forests are marked, and new forest plantations are marked in blue. Since the year 2000, more than 2.5 million square kilometers of forest on Earth have been destroyed. Such figures indicate that since then an area of ​​​​forest equal to fifty football fields has been deforested daily. Most of the damage to forest resources was caused in Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, Russia and the United States.

Colombia's Amazon Forest Program

At the UN climate change summit on November 30, 2015, representatives of four countries: Colombia, Norway, Germany and the UK signed a cooperation agreement to reduce deforestation in the Amazon valleys. One hundred million dollars in funding has been allocated by signatory countries to implement the Amazon Vision program to save forests. The main goal of this program is the restoration of the Amazon forests - the green lungs of the planet.

US Rainforest Conservation Programs

One of the states that pays great attention to the issue of saving and restoring forests is the United States, which has already signed thirteen agreements with various countries. These are mostly South American countries, and the programs created under the rainforest conservation agreements will bring hundreds of millions of dollars in the coming years to protect the biologically rich tropical rainforests. Countries that receive funding will redirect payments to local funds, which will ensure sustainable programmatic support for local forest conservation.

Saving the forests of Cameroon by specialists from Germany

GTZ is a German technical cooperation society that has been dealing with the problem of deforestation in Cameroon for many years and has been taking steps towards the wise use of forest resources. The second highest mountain in Africa, Cameroon, is surrounded by clouds almost all year round, and the northern slope of the mountain ranks second in the world in terms of precipitation. It is not surprising that in these places the soil is so fertile that even without cultivation, everything here grows by itself. To date, 2/3 of all tropical forests in Cameroon have been destroyed for the sake of tea plantations, where visiting workers work, who build new villages, continuing to cut down the forest. The German society for technical cooperation GTZ has been saving the remaining forest for years in order to save something for future generations, while also providing acceptable living conditions for the current local population.

Floating forest in the Netherlands

The Dutch are known to everyone as creative people with a non-standard approach to ordinary things. They even solved the problem of landscaping and forest conservation in a very original way. Already in the near future, namely, on March 16, 2016 in the Netherlands in the city of Rotterdam, a floating forest will appear, which will consist of twenty trees floating on the water. These trees, cut down during the construction of city buildings, have found new life. Previously, such trees were cut down, but now they are transplanted into a special Bomendepot park, which will donate the trees for a floating forest, created entirely with public contributions. Buoys from North Sea in which the trees are located was provided by the water traffic agency Rijkswaterstaa. A tree from the Bomendepot nursery can be received and planted in a new place by anyone who has completed the relevant documents. On the idea of ​​creating a non-trivial floating forest of participants artistic association Mothership was inspired by the painting "In Search of Habitus" by artist Jorge Becker.

The role of birds in forest restoration

Researching the African rainforests, Canadian scientists have discovered important role tree-eating birds in reforestation. Seeds eaten by birds and passed through the digestive tract are not eaten by beetles. From this, the forest, where many birds live, recovers faster. With a decrease in the birds that inhabit the forest, the beetles completely destroy the seeds, which reduces the number of young shoots of trees. That is, the rapid reduction of tropical forests can now be explained not only by human activity. In some regions of East Africa, forests have not been cut down for a long time, but they still continue to disappear. A new discovery of the role of birds in forest restoration provides an opportunity to develop methods to save the African rainforests by preserving the necessary bird population in them.

Fight against forest pollution

Our country is rich in forests, but we, perhaps more than anyone else, are familiar with the problem of forest pollution. And, unfortunately, mostly our citizens themselves are the cause of this problem, and to such an extent that foreigners have to clean up the Ukrainian forest! English volunteers who have been coming to Ukraine for many years under the orphan assistance program once ended up in the outback of the country, where they were struck by the absolute indifference of the inhabitants to native nature. According to volunteers, nature in Ukraine is very beautiful, but incredibly polluted. Thus, through the efforts of English volunteers, the Waste Collection and Sorting Program in Ternova (a village in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine) was born. How is it that our people allowed so much rubbish that even foreigners had to clean it up? This is really very embarrassing and makes you think seriously, what do you think?

A ruthless attitude towards nature, deforestation and pollution have led to a sharp deterioration in the environment throughout our planet. Therefore, it is imperative for everyone to move from a consumer and predatory approach to the forest to a reasonable interaction with it, carrying out not only the primary, but also recycling wood raw materials, engaged in selective felling, without disturbing the natural growth of trees. It is also very important to restore the forest by planting additional trees.

The forest is, in truth, a source of life-giving force, without which life on Earth is impossible. And each of those who are now reading our news can contribute to the renewal of the forest and plant at least one tree on their own!

Many of us live very far from Brazil, Indonesia, and the Congo Basin, where the last patches of tropical moist forests. It is very easy to forget that every breath we take connects us to these remote ecosystems and that we must look after their survival as our own.

You probably know some information about these ecosystems. wet forests are home to more than 50 percent of all species on the planet, as well as home to millions of indigenous peoples. Moreover, rain forests are one of the main defenses against global warming, as they store huge amounts of carbon. More than 40% of all oxygen on the planet comes from tropical forests.

But, unfortunately, today more than 2/3 of all tropical forests in the world exist in the form of small patches. Industrial Agriculture, overconsumption of resources, poor management, illegal logging, unwillingness and/or inability to recognize the rights of indigenous peoples and global warming are a direct threat to the existence of rainforests.

North America and Europe are major consumers of tropical forest benefits. This means that we can all improve the current situation. Below are several ways protect the world's rainforests. If you have additions, please share them in the comments.

1. Love for the rainforest
Perhaps the most important step in protecting rainforests is true love to them. Learn more about the beauty and importance of these ecosystems and share this knowledge with family and friends. Now deforestation brings more profit than keeping it. This situation needs to be changed.

2. Printed publications
Cellulose from destroyed tropical scaffolding is coming on cheap printing paper, napkins and toilet paper sold to consumers in the US, Europe and Asia. But it shouldn't be. The largest American printers have already moved away from rainforest pulp, but they still need the help of each of us.

3. Palm oil
Believe it or not, palm oil is in half of the packaged foods in the US, from cereals and candy to lipstick and soap. But the creation of oil palm plantations is the main reason for the deforestation of tropical forests. The main companies purchasing huge volumes of palm oil are: famous brands like General Mills, Unilever, Nestle and Cargill. By refusing their products, you will help save the rainforest from destruction.

4. Indigenous people
It is very important to increase funding to protect the indigenous population of tropical rainforests. Each of us can do what we can by making a donation to the Rainforest Foundation or the Rainforest Action Network.

5. Fossil fuel
It is not so obvious, but fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas) are main threat for wet forests. Oil extraction has led to the destruction of vast areas of forest in the Amazon, and already has negative consequences. environmental impact. By eliminating these sources of energy, we can graze the life of the rainforest, and therefore the life of each of us.

Photos from open sources

The Amazon Delta is considered to be the lungs of our planet. Dense impenetrable forests growing on the banks of the mighty South American river produce colossal volumes of oxygen dispersed throughout the Earth. (website)

However, this state of affairs is rapidly changing. The governments of Colombia, Brazil and Peru are condoning the fact that their countries are deforesting the Amazon at a catastrophic rate in order to get quick money. Officials do not care that it will take centuries for the rainforests to recover to their former extent. And will someone let them recover when asphalt is being laid here and there and various structures are being erected?

Defenders of nature invariably protest against deforestation, year after year, but these protests do not produce any effect on the authorities. According to civil servants, several tens of square kilometers of cut down trees will not harm the environment. Fortunately, this irresponsible attitude of South Americans towards the Amazonian forests may soon change. And this will happen not thanks to the efforts of Greenpeace and other green vigilantes, but due to the fact that Indian tribes cut off from civilization live in the virgin jungle, which will certainly perish without "their home".

A tribe of savages who have not been touched by civilization

A few years ago, Professor José Carlos Morales provided the world scientific community with an amazing video that excited the minds of not only scientists, but also ordinary people from all over the world. A recording made near the Envira tributary of the Amazon in Brazil shows a tribe that never interacted with modern world. It is possible that the helicopter from which this video was filmed seemed to the Indians a terrible flying creature or some kind of magical thing. The helicopter with José and BBC journalists flew up to a distance of a kilometer to the settlement, but the savages quickly noticed it.

Photos from open sources

According to Morales, this is one of the few tribes that survived in the Amazonian forests. It is hard to believe that there are communities on our planet that have not developed for centuries, but this is true. The vast rainforest allows the Indians to live full life perhaps not even suspecting the existence of our civilization.

The savages spend the night in large huts and plant gardens with cassava, a root plant resembling potatoes. In the forest, the Indians collect bananas and papaya fruit, somewhat similar to a melon. It is possible that they also hunt.

The video below has become a real sensation. Until recently, Morales and his colleagues could not prove to the Brazilian authorities that tribes really live in the Amazon forests, which will certainly die out if the deforestation of the Amazon does not stop. At the same time, it is impossible to interact with savages in any case, since there is always a possibility that the chicken pox or flu familiar to us may be fatal for them.

The Brazilian government recently promised that it would not allow such a genocide. The only way out, scientists say, is to leave them alone and let them live the way they have lived all this time. And for this, you will have to leave alone their home, that is, the Amazon rainforest.