The Importance Of Rainforests

By Sebanti Ghosh

Rainforests, by virtue of their abundant renewable natural resources, have for timeless periods provided the humankind with amenities for survival and well being, including food, clothing, fuel, condiments, products of industrial use, and even remedies for ailments. The loss of rainforests has an intense and overwhelming consequence.

The rainforests house the Earth's richest biological resources. Almost half of the world's biodiversity will be extinct or severely endangered in the next few years if this rainforest deforestation continues. Approximately ten million aboriginal people lived in the rainforests of the Amazon basin five centuries ago. Today the numbered has dwindled to less than 200,000. Along with the loss of the native tribes, their vast knowledge of medicinal uses of the diverse herbs of the rainforests is also gone irrevocably.

Alkaloids are abundant in the rainforest plants. Many such alkaloids have long-established medicinal use. 121 prescription drugs sold all over the world at present are derived from plant-parts. The plants in the rainforests are the sources of about 25% of pharmaceuticals used in the Western countries. But most of these plants are yet to be analyzed by biologists for their active ingredients and potential uses.

It has been found that more species of birds reside in a single biosphere reserve in Peru than the whole United States. Forty three ant species was found on one single tree in Peru. This number approximately equals the number of species of ants in the British Isles. The number of species of fish in the Amazon River surpasses the number found in the total Atlantic Ocean. These figures bear proof to the astounding biodiversity of the Amazonian rainforests. Accordingly, the loss of even one acre of tropical rainforest transpires to the loss of a staggering amount of plant, animal and microorganism species, along with the loss of their possible uses.

It is possible that cutting down the rainforest may result in losing the potential cure for cancer or AIDS that might have been discovered in an untested or unknown plant from the forest. So in every sense, the wealth offered by the intact rainforest exceeds by far the value of the supplies obtained when the trees are felled for industrial purposes.

Save the rain forest!