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Activity 1: Rainforest resources
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What is the most valuable rainforest
resource? |
Endangered
species
Rainforest
medicines
  Animal
diversity
 "More
than 50% of the world's plant and animal species inhabit the 7%
of the world that is covered in rainforest." Public broadcasting
service (PBS)
Plant
diversity
 Minerals
 "In
Papua, the world's largest gold mine dumps over 200,000 tons of
toxic mine waste into the local river systems each day."
Rainforestweb.org
Indigenous
people
 "Over
90 different Amazonian tribes are thought to have disappeared during
the last century." The Rainforest Alliance
"780
tree species have been found in a 25 acre plot of Malaysian rainforest,
more than the total number of tree species native to the US and
Canada" Rainforest alliance
Interest
 "Tarzan
remains one of the best-known literary characters in the entire
world" Edgar Rice Burroughs' biography, author of Tarzan
Ecotourism
 "Ecotourism
is responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment
and sustains the well-being of local people." The International
Ecotourism Society
Products
from trees
 "Fruits
and latex can represent more than 90 percent of the total market
value of tropical forests, over time far exceeding the value of
timber or conversion to pasture" Texas A&M University
The
carbon cycle
 "Tropical
trees contain enormous quantities of carbon; when they're destroyed
carbon is released. This contributes to global warming." Natural
Resources Defence Council
Ranching
and plantations
 "Figures
show that more than 23,000 square kilometres of Amazon forest…disappeared
between August 2002 and 2003 due primarily to a large expansion
in cattle ranching and industrial-scale farming." WWF
Rainforest
foods
 "Ecuador
is the world's largest banana exporter. Ecuadorian children as young
as eight work on banana plantations in hazardous conditions."
Human rights watch
Bushmeat
 "Recently,
illegal bushmeat, including endangered gorilla meat, has been found
being served in restaurants in Paris and Brussels." International
Primate Protection League
Land
for housing
 "If
the current rate of deforestation continues, the world's rain forests
will vanish within 100 years" Earth Observatory, NASA
Spiritual
value of the forest
 "A shaman knows that all things are alive and walks with one foot in this world and one foot in the spirit world" Centre for contemporary shamanism (shamanism.co.uk) |
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"Scientists
estimate that an average of 137 species become extinct every day
- 50,000 each year (that's about six in the next hour)." Natural
Resources Defence Council
Aesthetics
 "The
country was more beautiful than we had imagined. Indeed no superlatives
can describe our impressions of Costa Rica". Mr & Mrs
CS, Devon
"Vincristine,
a medicine from the rosy periwinkle plant, has helped increase the
chance of surviving childhood leukaemia from 10% to 95%." The
Living Rainforest
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Click on these faces to find out what some other people
think about the value of the rainforest.
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Video requires RealPlayer. Click the button below if you need to download it.
AntCam
Watch
the leaf-cutter ants in Wildwalk-At-Bristol's living rainforest
www.at-bristol.org.uk/About/WCAnt.htm
ColibríCam
Watch
hummingbirds in the cloud forest of Costa Rica
http://www.cloudforestalive.org/tour/hcam/
Plant cultures
Plants have an important part in our lives, from the clothes on our back
to the food that we eat. Plant Cultures invites you to discover more about
South Asian plants and the stories they have inspired.
www.plantcultures.org.uk
Ecoyouth.Info
A site
packed with conservation news, information and great ways for you to take
action
www.ecoyouth.info
RainTree
Find
out more about the values of the rainforest
www.rain-tree.com
Rainforest
Alliance
An
international non-profit organisation dedicated to the
conservation of tropical forest
www.rainforest-alliance.org
RainForestWeb
An
international non-profit organisation dedicated to the conservation of
tropical forests
www.rainforestweb.org
International
Ecotourism Society
Full of information about ecotourism and current projects that they are
working on
http://www.ecotourism.org
World Trade Organisation
The World Trade Organisation’s environment and trade site
http://www.wto.int/english/tratop_e/envir_e/envir_e.htm
Rainforest
Concern
A charity dedicated
to forest conservation
http://www.rainforestconcern.org/
Survival
International
an organisation
dedicated to supporting tribal people
http://www.survival-international.org/welcome.htm
