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Description
It
is rare to find someone today who hasn't heard of the plight of the
rainforests. However, most people couldn't place their finger on a
single fact about the worlds rainforests. The list of sources
below should help you find the information you need. Did you know
there are other rainforests outside of the tropics? The boreal
rainforests cover a huge percentage of the land surface of the northern
hemisphere - approximately 14.5% of the world's entire land
surface. There
are estimates that the tropical forests contain half of all species on
earth. They once covered 14% of the earth's land surface as well,
but that has been reduced to 6% in the past few centuries. 25% of
the pharmaceuticals sold in the US are derived from tropical
plants. Rainforests have also been proven to produce more rain in
the area they live. Cutting
down the trees reduced this effect and re-growing rainforests is very
difficult since the nutrients reside in the very surface layers of
dirt. Farming and logging exhibits huge pressures on rainforests,
particularly with burning the leftover material. The land soon
becomes less productive, encouraging farmers to move on and cut down
more trees. It is difficult to encourage countries to stop this
destruction, especially since the US has a tendency to let private
industry to go after the few remaining old growth trees left.
These countries are typically poor, and unless we encourage things such
as shade-grown coffee, the forests will continue to be destroyed at an
alarming rate.
Logging
on public lands have been proven to loose money for the taxpayer.
If there is any reason to lobby against these allowances, it is simply
to save us money.
Helpful
Websites
- California Oak Mortality Task Force - Sudden Oak Death
- Defenders of Wildlife - National Forest Regulations
- Forests
(Earthjustice)
- Forests
(Sierra Club)
- Forest Stewardship
Council (FSC)
- Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, The University of Arizona
- National Interagency Fire Center
(NIFC)
- Race for the Rainforest
(Care2.com)
- Saving
the Rights of indigenous peoples (savetherest.org)
- Society for Conservation Biology
(SCB)
- Sustainable Forestry:
SmartWood (Rainforest Alliance)
- The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation
(ATBC) : Biotropica
- The Rainforest Information Center
- The Rainforest Site: Help Save Our Rainforests!
- The Rainforest Solutions Project - Building Solutions in the Great Bear Rainforest
- World Rainforest Information Portal - Amazon, South America, Asia, Rain
Rainforest web.org (Africa)
- Student
Guide to Tropical Forest Conservation
- The
Boreal Forests (WHRC)
- Map
of the Amazon
- BorealForest.org
- The General Sherman Tree, Sequoia National Park
- American Forests: National Register of Big Trees
- Alerce: The South American Giant
- The
Angel
Oak
- We
Save Trees
- Sustainable
Forestry (Rainforest Alliance)
- Amazon
Watch
-
- Helpful
Reports
-
-
- Helpful
Books and Magazines
-
- "Boreal
Environment Research" magazine
- "Remarkable
Trees of the World" by Pakenham
- "Ancient
Trees" by Lewington
- "The
Rainforests : A Celebration" by Silcock
- "Tropical
Rainforest" by Newmann
- "Fate
of the Wild" by Burgess
- "From
Conquest to Conservation" by Dombeck
- "Glen
Canyon Reader" by Gross
- "Strangely Like War: The Global Assault on Forests"
by Jensen and Draffan
- "The
Fate of the Forests" by Hecht and Cockburn
- "The
Sustainable Forestry Handbook" by Higman
- "Tales from the Jungle" by Katz
-
Copy and Paste these book
titles into the Search Box below for available new and used copies.
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