FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How many plant and animal species can be found in rainforests?
How many plant and animal species can be found in rainforests?
- More than half of the world's plants and animal species live in rainforests and some animals can only be found in rainforests. If rainforests get destroyed a lot of animals will lose their homes.
- Rainforests are one of the worlds primary carbon reservoirs. By absorbing carbon dioxide from the air, storing the carbon and giving us oxygen to breathe, tropical forests act as the earth's thermostat regulating temperatures and weather patterns.
- Many birds that spend the summer in North American back yards migrate to tropical rainforests in the winter.
- Scientists are continuing to discover new species of plants and animals. many rainforest plants provide us with food and medicine. Tropical forest have given us chemicals to treat or cure inflammation, rheumatism, diabetes, muscle tension, surgical complications, malaria, heart conditions, skin diseases, arthritis, glaucoma an hundreds of other maladies.
- In many countries, there are no laws to prevent people from entering a forest, cutting it down, burning the dry vegetation, and planting seeds. The farmers can grow crops in the ashes of burned forests for a few years, but eventually, the nutrient-poor soils give out and then that land is abandoned. people who need wood for fuel also cause deforestation. illegal logging is also a problem with rainforest destruction.
- You can help protect ecosystems and the people and wild life that depend on them by holding an Adopt-A-Rainforest fundraiser and buying responsibly produced foods, wood and paper products.