Tropical rainforest are the world´s richest and most productive ecosystems, containing half of all living creatures on the planet.

Rainforests are very dense, warm, wet forests. They are havens for millions of plants and animals. Rainforests are extremely important in the ecology of the Earth. The plants of the rainforest generate much of the Earth´s oxygen. These plants are also very important to people in other ways; many are used in new drugs that fight disease and illness.

8,000 years ago the Earth was covered by approximatly 14.8 billion acres of forest.
The world´s forest area has now shrunk to 8.6 billion acres as a consequence of human exploitation. There are 3.5 billion acres of tropical forest left now.
Experts estimate that the last remaining rainforest could be consumed in less than 40 years.

We are losing 33,8 million acres of tropical forest per year.
500,000 trees are cut down every hour.
An area the size of a football field is being destroyed every second!

Why do tropical forest disappear?

Tropical forests yield some of the most beautiful and valuable woods in the world, such as teak, mahogany, rosewood, balsa, sandalwood, and countless lesser-known species. These woods surround us at home.

Most rainforests are cleared by chainsaws, bulldozers and fires for their timber value and are then followed by farming and ranching operations.

The felling of one ”selected ” tree, tears down with it climbers, vines, epiphyters and lians. A large hole is left in the canopy and complete regeneration takes hundreds of years. Removing a felled tree from the forest causes even further destruction.

Most of the rainforest timber on the international market is exported to rich countries. There, it is sold for hundreds of the times of the price that is paid to the indigenous peoples whose forest has been plundered. The timber is used in the construction of doors, window frames, crates, coffins, furniture, plywood sheets, chopsticks, household utensils and other items.

We lose 20 000 to 100 000 species a year.
4 species per hour due tropical deforestation

Nobody knows what effect the disappearenc of the rainforest will have on our planet but there is general scientific agreement that it will impact everything from climate to the air we breath, it is a virtal part of our global balance.

Ecudor´s tropical forest contain over 15,000 plant species, there are 13,000 plant species in all of Europe

Fruits (a gift from nature): At least 3000 fruits are found in the rainforest, of these only 200 are now in use in the Western World. The indians of the rainforest use over 2000 - Avocados, coconuts, figs, oranges, lemons, grapefruits, bananas, guavas, pinapples, mangos and tomatos, vegetables including corn, potatoes, rice, winter squash and yams, spices like black pepper, cayenne, chocolate, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, suger cane, tumeric, coffee and vanilla.

Medicine plants: Tropical forests have given us chemicals to treat or cure inflammation, rheumattism, diabetes, muscle tension, surgical complications, malaria, heart conditions, skin diseases, arthritis, glaucoma, and hundreds of other maladies. Forests offer stimulants, tranquilizers and contraceptives.

The U.S National Cancer Institute has identified 3000 plants that are useable against cancer cells. 70% of these plants are found in the rainforest. 25% of the active ingredients in today´s cancer- fighting drugs come from organisms found only in the rainforest.
Perhaps someday soon, a cure for AIDS… (or maybe that plant is already gone forever)

Animals:Huge numbers of animals live in the rainforest, including microscopic animals, invertebrates (like insects and worms), fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals, the different rainforests of the world support different populations of animals.

30% of all bird species and 90% of all invertebrates are found in the tropical forest.

43 species of ant were found on one tree in Peru, the same number as in the entire British isles.

Indians: There were an estimated ten million Indians living in the Amazons five centuries ago. Today there are less than 200,000.

In Brazil alone, European colonists have destroyed more than 90 indigenous tribes since the 1900s. With them have gone centuries of accumulated knowledge on the medicinal value of rainforest species. As their homelands continue to be destroyed by deforestation, rainforest peoples are also disappearing.

When a medicine man or shaman dies without passing his arts on to the next generation, the tribe and the world loses thousands of years of irreplaceable knowledge about medicinal plants.