Imagine waking up only
to find yourself in the middle of the Amazon. Everything
is lush and
green, a great relief from the dull grey colour
of the office. Around you spider monkeys
are crashing
through the canopy, as macaws screech with glee
at finding a favourite fruit. A nearby herd of
peccaries
make their way through the underbrush, as an iguana
watches them with indifference.
This is the rainforest
that everyone would like to imagine, but the
reality is much different. Due to over hunting,
animals
are
scarce and try to avoid curious and often dangerous
humans. Deforestation, to make way for
farmlands which quickly become unproductive,
has drastically altered the ecosystem of
some parts of the forest, while pollution from
increased river traffic endangers water life.
The rainforest
is still there, much as pristine as it
ever was, but its tender balance is slowly being
broken
by the encroachment of man.
Why do we need the Amazon?
The Amazon is
home to 50% of all the worlds rainforests and known
species, making
it one of the most biodiverse environments on earth.
This alone should make it intrinsically valuable,
but also consider the
following facts. Because of the amount of cloud
generated by the Amazonian forest, they play an
important role of distributing the sun's heat.
If the forests were to be cut down, the climate would
be drastically altered. The Amazon also produces
economically viable products such as lumber, fiber,
food, and medicine. In fact a huge percentage of
the world's pharmaceuticals are based off of Amazonian
occurring chemicals. Many more life saving chemical
compounds may be still found in the darkest reaches
of the forest. There still many species left to
be found.
Biodiversity
It is common knowledge that the Amazon
has one of the highest species diversity rates in
the world.
There are over an estimated 300 different species
of trees in a single hectare (2.5 acres), and the
surrounding undergrowth and tree branches have
hundreds of more species of ferns, epiphytes, herbaceous
plants, vines, and shrubs. Thus far, over 2,400
species of birds have been recorded, and the diversity
of mammal, reptile, and amphibian species is far
more than any comparable area of temperate forest.
2,000 species of fish have been recorded in the
surrounding rivers, and scientist suspect there
might be another
1,000.
