Forests of wonder
The trees are alive
Millions of animal, plant, insect and bird species live in the world’s beautiful rainforests, from gorillas and tigers to giant snakes and flesh-eating fish! But the forests in which these creatures live have many other functions. They remove carbon dioxide (CO2, the main global warming gas) from the air, storing it away in their trunks. And they release oxygen into the air, helping us breathe!
Tropical rainforests (as their name suggests!) get lots of rain - between 200 and 1000cm per year! The giant trees soak it up, releasing it back into the air as vapour, which is then blown around the world as clouds. Some of it ends up falling here in the British Isles as rain, sleet or snow!
Tasty treats
Around 80% of the food we eat first came from tropical rainforests, including bananas, potatoes, nuts, coffee and chocolate. You can even buy an eco-friendly chewing gum, called Chicza, that’s made entirely from rainforest plants. Rainforests are great for our health, too - one in four of the medicines we buy contain ingredients that originally came from plants in the rainforest, including many that help treat cancer!
But animals, birds and insects aren’t the only ones living in our rainforests. An estimated 50 million indigenous people live in these 60m-high forests – that’s almost the same as the population of the UK! These people rely on and look after the leafy world in which they live - but they’d be homeless if the rainforests were chopped down.
Climate battle
A few thousand years ago, tropical rainforests covered 12% of the Earth’s land surface. But they cover less than five per cent of it today. And when rainforest trees are chopped down or burned to make way for farms, roads, mines and towns, the carbon locked away in their trunks is released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO2). Sadly, so many trees are chopped down that deforestation releases more CO2 into the atmosphere than all of the world’s planes, trains and cars together! And if we lose the battle against deforestation, we will lose the battle against climate change. That will affect us here in the British Isles, too.
Want to help save the rainforests?! Then text "SOS" and your email address to 60777* or sign up to The Prince’s Rainforests Project by clicking here now! Click here to find out how to enter the Sony / The Prince's Rainforests Project Photographic Competition.
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Pictures: © Getty Images UK