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Many plants are native to the forest. The forest can help prevent soil erosions as it grips the soil. Ancient civilisations often cultivate fruit producing trees. Produces oxygen. Many animals we eat today are native to the forest. It is home to many endangered-animals. Trees are use as fuel and can be made into paper.

JIM:I found some good websites[] (look at the links on about rain rainforests and why are rainforests important) www.geointeractive.co.uk/.../develop%20the%20**rainforest**%20or%20not.doc

Tropical rainforests are forests with tall trees, warm climate, and lots of rain. Rainforests are found in Africa, Asia, Australia, and Central and South America. The largest rainforest in the world is the Amazon rainforest Spots coloured in green are where rainforests are found.
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 * Rainforests worldwide ||

Rainforests are important to the global ecosystem because they provide a home to many plants and animals; help stabilize the world's climate; protect against flood, drought, and erosion; are a source for medicines and foods. Rainforests help stabilize the world's climate by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is believed to contribute to climate change through global warming. Therefore rainforests have an important in addressing global warming. Rainforests are also home to a large number of the world's plant and animals species, including many endangered species. As forests are cut down, many species are doomed to extinction. Some rainforest species can only survive in their natural habitat.

Rainforests also help maintain the water cycle. The role of rainforests in the water cycle is to add water to the atmosphere through the process of transpiration (where they release water from their leaves during photosynthesis). This moisture contributes to the formation of rain clouds which release the water back on the rainforest. In the Amazon, 50-80% of moisture remains in the ecosystem's water cycle. When the forests are cut down, less moisture is goes into the atmosphere and rainfall declines and sometimes leads to drought.

The roots of rainforest trees and vegetation help anchor the soil. When trees are cut down there is no longer anything to protect the ground and soils are quickly washed away with rain. As soil is washed down into rivers it causes problems for fish and people. Fish suffer because water becomes clouded, while people have trouble navigating waterways that are shallower because of the increased amount of dirt in the water. Meanwhile farmers lose topsoil that is important for growing crops.

Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface; now they cover 6% and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years. Unbelievably; over 200,000 acres of rainforest are burned every day. That is over 150 acres lost every minute of every day, and 78 million acres are lost every year! Nearly half of the world's species of plants, animals and micro-organisms will be destroyed or severely threatened over the next quarter century due to Rainforest deforestation. Experts estimate that we are losing 137 plant, animal and insect species every single day due to rainforest deforestation. That is 50,000 species a year. As the rainforest species disappear, so do many possible cures for life-threatening diseases. Currently, 121 prescription drugs sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. While 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients, less that 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists. European colonists have destroyed more than 90 indigenous tribes since the 1900's. With them have gone centuries of accumulated knowledge of the medicinal value of rainforest species. As their homelands continue to be destroyed by deforestation, rainforest peoples are also disappearing.

Why is the rainforest important? A single rainforest reserve in Peru is home to more species of birds than the entire United States; One single tree in Peru was found to harbour forty-three different species of ants – this is equal to the entire ant species in the British Isles. A single pond in Brazil can sustain a greater variety of fish than are found in all of Europe's rivers; A twenty-five acre plot of rainforest in Borneo may contain over seven hundred species of trees - a number equal to the total tree diversity of North America; Currently, 121 prescription drugs currently sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. And while 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients, less than 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists. The U.S. National Cancer Institute has identified 3000 plants that are active against cancer cells. 70% of these plants are found in the rainforest. Twenty-five percent of the active ingredients in today's cancer-fighting drugs come from organisms found only in the rainforest More than half of the world's estimated 10 million species of plants, animals and insects live in the tropical rainforests. One-fifth of the world's fresh water is in the Amazon Basin. One hectare (2.47 acres) may contain over 750 types of trees and 1500 species of higher plants. At least 80% of the developed world's diet originated in the tropical rainforest. Its bountiful gifts to the world include fruits like avocados, coconuts, figs, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, bananas, guavas, pineapples, mangos and tomatoes; vegetables including corn, potatoes, rice, winter squash and yams; spices like black pepper, cayenne, chocolate, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, sugar cane, tumeric, coffee and vanilla and nuts including Brazil nuts and cashews. Most medicine men and shamans remaining in the Rainforests today are 70 years old or more. Each time a Rainforest medicine man dies, it is as if a library has burned down. When a medicine man dies without passing his arts on to the next generation, the tribe and the world loses thousands of years of irreplaceable knowledge about medicinal plants. The Amazon Rainforest has been described as the "Lungs of our Planet" because it provides the essential environmental world service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. More than 20 percent of the world oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest. []