Commercial Logging devastates 12.5 million acres of tropical forests annually. Britain is one of the largest consumers of tropical hardwood in the world. Only 5% of our imported tropical wood is sustainably produced.
Deforestation means the fragile rainforest soil is no longer protected from erosion and the results of this are already being felt - around Lake Madden in Panama massive soil erosion is causing the Panama Canal to silt-up.
In the Himalayas deforestation has resulted in India spending millions of pounds to cope with the results of flooding.
Deforestation and burning of the tropical forests has led to a predication that rainfall cycles over the Northern Hemisphere may be disrupted and we will see a warming of the Earth's atmosphere due to the 'Greenhouse Effect'.
Food Plants
In these areas you will see many food plants that originated in the rainforests, including Coffee, Sugar, Banana, Yam and Cassava. It is important to maintain the wild relatives of these commercial crops for provisions of new genetic materials to improve yields and increase disease resistance.
At least 1,650 known rainforest plants are thought to have potential
as vegetable crops!
Medecine
One in four medicinal products on sale at the chemist contain compounds derived from rainforest species. Notice the Rosy Periwinkle, Catharanthus roseus, on the raised bed opposite the pool. Thanks to the alkaloids yielded by this plant a child suffering from Leukaemia now has its chance of surviving increased from 20% to 80%.
Tropical forests are the main provider of raw materials for modern medicines, how many will be lost before their real potential will be discovered and utilised?
