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This article is about the rainforest. For more specific information, see Temperate rain forest or Tropical rainforest. For Jenny Diski's novel, see Rainforest (novel).

Rainforests, or rain forests, are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions setting minimum normal annual rainfall between 1750 mm and 2000 mm (68 inches to 78 inches).

Rainforests are home to two thirds of all the living animal and plant species on the planet. It has been estimated that many hundreds of millions of new species of plants, insects and microorganisms are still undiscovered. Tropical rain

Effect on global climate

A natural rainforest emits and absorbs vast quantities of carbon dioxide. Over the long term these fluxes are approximately in balance, so that an undisturbed rainforest would have little net impact on atmospheric CO₂ levels, though they may have other climatic effects (on cloud formation, for example, by recycling water vapour). No rainforest in the only specially adapted plants can grow in this region. Away from river banks, swamps and clearings where dense undergrowth is found, the forest floor is relatively clear of vegetation, as little sunlight penetrates to ground level. It also contains decaying plant and animal matter, which disappears quickly due to the warm, humid conditions promoting rapid decay. Many forms of fungi grow here which help decay the animal and plant waste.

Fauna

More than half of the world's species of plants and animals are found in the rainforest. Rainforests support a very broad array of fauna including mammals, reptiles, birds and invertebrates. Mammals may include primates, felids and other families. Reptiles include snakes, turtles, chameleons and other families while birds include such families as vangidae and Cuculidae. Dozens of families of invertebrates are found in rainforests. This amounts to over 5 million species of plants and animals.

Human uses

Many foods originally came from tropical forests, and are still mostly grown on plantations in regions that were formerly primary forest. Tropical rainforests are also the source of many medicinal drugs, with over half the medications originating from the rainforest . Tropical rainforests also provide timber as well as animal products such as meat and hides. Rainforests also have value as tourism destinations and for the ecosystem services provided.

Deforestation

Tropical and temperate rain forests have been subjected to heavy logging and agricultural clearance throughout the 20th century, and the area covered by rainforests around the world is rapidly shrinking. Biologists have estimated that large numbers of species are being driven to extinction (possibly more than 50,000 a year) due to the removal of habitat with destruction of the rainforests Error in Webarchive template: Empty url.. Protection and regeneration of the rainforests is a key goal of many environmental charities and organizations. (It is doubtful that this rate will be sustained as the relative cost of logging rises with dwindling resources.)

Another factor causing the loss of rainforest is expanding urban areas. Littoral Rainforest growing along coastal areas of eastern Australia is now rare due to ribbon development to accommodate the demand for seachange lifestyles.

About half of the mature tropical rainforests, between 750 to 800 million hectares of the original 1.5 to 1.6 billion hectares that once graced the planet have already been felled. The devastation is already acute in South East Asia, the second of the world's great biodiversity hot spots. Most of what remains is in the Amazon basin, where the Amazon rainforest covered more than 600 million hectares, an area nearly two thirds the size of the United States. The forests are being destroyed at an ever-quickening pace. Unless significant measures are taken on a world-wide basis to preserve them, by 2030 there will only be 10% remaining with another 10% in a degraded condition. 80% will have been lost and with them the natural diversity they contain will pass away forever.

Many tropical countries, including Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Bangladesh, China, Sri Lanka, Laos, Nigeria, Liberia, Guinea, Ghana and the Cote d'lvoire have already lost large areas of their rainforest. Eighty per cent of the forests of the Philippine archipelago have already been cut down. "In 1960 Central America still had four fifths of its original forest; now it is left with only two fifths of it. Half of the Brazilian state of Rondonia's 24.3 million hectares have been destroyed or severely degraded in recent years. Several countries, notably the Philippines, Thailand and India have declared their deforestation a national emergency.

See also

• Tropical rainforest
• Temperate rain forest
• Cloud forest
• Jungle
• Endangered species
• Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
• Deforestation
• Illegal logging
• Rubber tapping
• Coalition for Rainforest Nations
• Holocene extinction event

References

General references

• Richards, P. W. (1996). The tropical rain forest. 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press ISBN 0-521-42194-2
• Whitmore, T. C. (1998) An introduction to tropical rain forests. 2nd ed. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-850147-1
• Butler, R. A. (2005) A Place Out of Time: Tropical Rainforests and the Perils They Face. Published online: rainforests.mongabay.com

Specific references

1. Myers, N. (1985). The primary source. W. W. Norton and Co., New York, pp. 189-193.

External links

• Rainforest Portal
• Rainforest Action Network
• United Nations Forum on Forests
• The Coalition for Rainforest Nations

• Rainforests