Rainforests // Current

Rainforest nations lobby to stop deforestation

"Rainforest nations will lobby the United Nations to set up a single body to coordinate the use of carbon credit trading to... more

islek
added this

Giant Record-breaking Insect as Long as your Arm

Stretching to an extraordinary 22 inches, this newly discovered bug is the longest stick insect in the world. Named the... more

goldenways
added this

Video: The sound and image of the rainforest of Panama

View the rainforest of Panama and it's wildlife with natural sounds amd .... relax.

obooble
added this

Lana's dream: Luna EcoLodge

Have you ever visited a place so enchanting, so fascinating, so alive, that no matter where you go in your life, or what you do... more

obooble
added this

Why the West should put money in the trees

In 2006, Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo outlined an offer to place almost the entirety of Guyana's rainforest under... more

bmltv
added this

River expedition in Madagascar Part1

Wild Chronicles goes on a river expedition to Makira, a remote and virtually undisturbed region of Madagascar, with a team of... more

obooble
added this

CONSUMING NATURE-The Biodiversity Crisis-Part 2

In 2003, Dr. Anthony Rose and I sat in the back yard of his Palos Verdes home discussing the many issues which plague Cameroon, Central Africa, the Congo Basin.
Everything which we talked about plays heavy on my conscience as criminal movement continues on in one of the worlds last wild places.
------------------------

What a profound and powerful species we humans are. Whether envisioned as the end point of Creation or as a product of ongoing evolution, humans have surpassed every other known form of life in our ability to transform the world to suit our needs and ambitions. We have made the whole earth our dominion, and all life our resource. We bring with us a voracious hunger, progressing as if we are destined to consume everything in our path.

Humans are the ultimate omnivore. On a planet fantastically rich with life, there is very little we do not eat. From ants to elephants, everything that moves has turned up in the cooking pot. This capacity to consume has helped make us the most adaptive, and the most deadly species on earth. Monkey brains are an illegal gourmet delight in Asian restaurants. International traders travel the world in search of rhino horn, tiger penis, bear gall, and whale fat. Exotic birds and rare turtles are worth more than their weight in gold. Our affluence and appetite grows at the expense of nature.

Nowhere is the consumption of endangered wildlife expanding faster than in equatorial Africa. The Congo River, its tributaries, and the other great rivers of the region pass through a myriad of swamp and forest stretching across the center of the continent to the Atlantic Ocean. A wonderland of flora and fauna wanders in the shadows. Water creatures swim beneath the surface hidden by the shimmer of setting sunlight. With luck we may see the elusive forest elephant tramping across a grassy clearing, but for the most part the great mammals are as secretive as the smallest of jungle animals.

Why should an elephant hide? For millennia these powerful and sensitive beasts roamed freely, losing only the most lame and weak members of their communities to predators. Humans who dwelt in the forests rarely took down an elephant, and when they did it was cause for reverent celebration and gratitude. When outsiders came to Congo with guns and a lust for exotic wealth, the balance changed. Trophy hunters chased the great mammals deep into the forests. Elephant, ape, buffalo, and leopard survived the early invasion by learning to stay clear of men. Today, there is no longer any place to hide.

Apes, elephants, indeed all the edible animals have become consumer items as men with guns and a hunger for wild game scour the wilderness in search of commercial gain. People who once considered the forest a place of danger now see it as a frontier for business, where money can be made without the controls and costs of urban political and legal structures. Like the gold rush in America in the nineteenth century, today's quest for natural resources in Central Africa is fraught with problems of lawlessness, social disruption, and environmental destruction. Like every rush for quick riches, the plundering of rain forest resources moves at a pace and in a fashion that cannot be sustained without severe consequences for nature and humanity as a whole.In 2003, Dr. Anthony Rose and I sat in the back yard of his Palos Verdes home discussing the many issues which plague Cameroon,... more

bmltv
added this

0 responses

1 month ago

CONSUMING NATURE-The Biodiversity Crisis-Part 1

Biodiversity. The sum total of all life on Earth. That wealth of genes, species,ecosystems, and ecological processes that make... more

bmltv
added this

2 responses

4 months ago

New manatee species discovered!

NEW SPECIES OF LIVING MANATEE! 'A New Species, the Dwarf Manatee, Amazon Association for the Preservation of Nature'... more

julesrs007
added this

6 responses

1 month ago

Prince in call to save rainforests

The Prince of Wales has called for a "sense of wartime urgency" in a bid to save the rainforests and cap global warming.

Charles, addressing a dinner at Mansion House in the City of London, described tropical forests as "the world's lifebelt", the destruction of which could result in "unprecedented geopolitical and economic upheaval".

The 59-year-old heir to the throne was speaking in his role as founder of a charitable foundation aimed at highlighting the value of the world's remaining rainforests.

The Prince's Rainforest Project was set up in 2007 in a bid to find solutions to the problem of tropical deforestation.

In his speech Charles outlined the devastating effect that destroying the world's precious rainforests could have on climate change and what this could mean for the world at large. He said: "I would suggest that for too long the destruction of the rainforests has been seen as a slightly troubling event occurring in 'far away countries about which we know little', and something which only marginally affects us. The trouble is that nothing could be further from the truth."

The Prince said the phenomena of climate change and rainforests were "umbilically connected".

Charles said: "It is no exaggeration to say that rainforests are the world's lifebelt. They act as giant global utilities, providing essential public services to humanity on a vast scale.

"They are the world's air conditioning system and also help to store the largest body of flowing water on the planet - water which is essential to grow food for the world's growing population."

The Prince added: "The consequences of such dramatic change are huge, even in the medium term with hundreds of millions of people displaced leading to security issues which will dwarf what we have witnessed in recent years and result in unprecedented geopolitical and economic upheaval.

"This is why I often use the analogy of war because I fear we are engaged in a battle for our very survival. We must mobilize ourselves, indeed the whole world, with that real sense of wartime urgency and resolve to act together."The Prince of Wales has called for a "sense of wartime urgency" in a bid to save the rainforests and cap global warming.... more

TravG73
added this

0 responses

2 months ago

Found after 300m years: rainforest fossils show how climate change could look

A series of fossilised forests the size of small cities have provided prehistoric evidence of how tropical rainforests are... more

Crazyotto
added this

1 response

2 months ago

Deforestation escalates in Brazilian Amazon

Satellite imagery released earlier this week provided further evidence that deforestation in Brazil's Amazon region... more

jefftego
added this

1 response

2 months ago

Bartering sex for stuff or services

While she was studying in Brazil during college, the one thing Stephanie Gerson longed to do before leaving was spend time in the... more

luckysnorkel
added this

53 responses

3 months ago

Tree-free paper

Want to use paper without feeling guilty? When I found out it takes 24 trees to make a ton of paper I was shocked. I started... more

MeganMcKenzie
added this

9 responses

3 months ago

Peru moves to end Amazon protests

Will governments ever work for the interests of the people or just continue to work for the interests of business and industry?

jujulian
added this

0 responses

3 months ago

Forest defenders target snack foods, cosmetics

Major players in the food and cosmetics industries are coming under heavy pressure from environmental activists to stop manufacturing and selling products that contain palm oil.
Major players in the food and cosmetics industries are coming under heavy pressure from environmental activists to stop manufacturing and selling products that contain palm oil.

"Companies like Hostess and Nestle are perpetuating rainforest destruction and human rights abuses by using palm oil in their products," said Leila Salazar-Lopez of the San Francisco-based Rainforest Action Network (RAN).

On Tuesday, Salazar-Lopez's group led a series of demonstrations targeting supermarkets in a number of major cities and towns across the nation, including Austin, Boston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, and San Francisco.

The demonstrators demanded supermarkets apply stickers reading, "Warning! Product May Contain Rainforest Destruction" on any item that contains palm oil, an ingredient that is widely used in food and cosmetics products.

Researchers say that increasing worldwide demand for palm oil is driving the construction of plantations in the tropical forests of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea.

These forests are disappearing at the rate of 2.5 million acres every year due to clear cutting to make way for palm oil plantations. Scientists warn that the continued construction of plantations in the tropical jungles can have disastrous consequences for the global environment.

Indonesia's tropical forests are considered some of the world's great carbon sinks and hence a solid source of defense in the fight against global warming.

Peat lands in the province of Riau on the island of Sumatra, for example, have the capacity to store over 14 billion tons of carbon -- roughly one year's global greenhouse gas emissions. But that is changing fast as commercial concerns continue to move in.

The environmental group Greenpeace claims that, due to palm oil plantation growth, about 25 percent of the peat forests in Riau have already disappeared, and there is so far no indication that the remaining ones will be shown any mercy.

Forest destruction is considered responsible for about one fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions. Greenpeace research links 4 percent of annual global emissions to the damage caused by palm oil companies to peat forests in Indonesia.**continues**Major players in the food and cosmetics industries are coming under heavy pressure from environmental activists to stop... more