RAINFOREST INFORMATION
By Rhett A. Butler Last updated Aug 14, 2020
A Place Out of Time: Tropical Rainforests and the Perils They Face - information on tropical forests, deforestation, and biodiversity
RAINFOREST FACTS
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Sections:
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE RAINFOREST
Rainforests are forest ecosystems characterized by high levels of rainfall, an enclosed canopy and high species diversity. While tropical rainforests are the best-known type of rainforest and the focus of this section of the web site, rainforests are actually found widely around the world, including temperate regions in Canada, the United States, and the former Soviet Union.
Tropical rainforests typically occur in the equatorial zone between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, latitudes that have warm temperatures and relatively constant year-round sunlight. Tropical rainforests merge into other types of forest depending on the altitude, latitude, and various soil, flooding, and climate conditions. These forest types form a mosaic of vegetation types which contribute to the incredible diversity of the tropics.
The bulk of the world's tropical rainforest occurs in the Amazon Basin in South America. The Congo Basin and Southeast Asia, respectively, have the second and third largest areas of tropical rainforest. Rainforests also exist on some the Caribbean islands, in Central America, in India, on scattered islands in the South Pacific, in Madagascar, in West and East Africa outside the Congo Basin, in Central America and Mexico, and in parts of South America outside the Amazon. Brazil has the largest extent of rainforest of any country on Earth.
Rainforests provide important ecological services, including storing hundreds of billions of tons of carbon, buffering against flood and drought, stabilizing soils, influencing rainfall patterns, and providing a home to wildlife and Indigenous people. Rainforests are also the source of many useful products upon which local communities depend.
While rainforests are critically important to humanity, they are rapidly being destroyed by human activities. The biggest cause of deforestation is conversion of forest land for agriculture. In the past subsistence agriculture was the primary driver of rainforest conversion, but today industrial agriculture — especially monoculture and livestock production — is the dominant driver of rainforest loss worldwide. Logging is the biggest cause of forest degradation and usually proceeds deforestation for agriculture.
Organization of this site
The rainforest section of Mongabay is divided into ten "chapters" (the original text for the site was a book, but has since been adapted for the web), with add-on content in the form of special focal sections (e.g. The Amazon, the Congo, REDD, New Guinea, Sulawesi, Forests in Brazil, etc), appendices, and other resources.
There is also a version of the site geared toward younger readers at kids.mongabay.com.
ABOUT THE RAINFOREST (SUMMARY)
Chapter 1:RAINFOREST DISTRIBUTION AND CHARACTERISTICS
Each rainforest is unique, but there are certain features common to all tropical rainforests.
- Location: rainforests lie in the tropics.
- Rainfall: rainforests receive at least 80 inches (200 cm) of rain per year.
- Canopy: rainforests have a canopy, which is the layer of branches and leaves formed by closely spaced rainforest trees some 30 meters (100 feet) off the ground. A large proportion of the plants and animals in the rainforest live in the canopy.
- Biodiversity: rainforests have extraordinarily highs level of biological diversity or “biodiversity”. Scientists estimate that about half of Earth's terrestrial species live in rainforests.
- Ecosystem services: rainforests provide a critical ecosystem services at local, regional, and global scales, including producing oxygen (tropical forests are responsible for 25-30 percent of the world's oxygen turnover) and storing carbon (tropical forests store an estimated 229-247 billion tons of carbon) through photosynthesis; influencing precipitation patterns and weather; moderating flood and drought cycles; and facilitating nutrient cycling; among others.
The global distribution of tropical rainforests can be broken up into four biogeographical realms based roughly on four forested continental regions: the Afrotropical, the Australiasian, the Indomalayan/Asian, and the Neotropical. Just over half the world's rainforests lie in the Neotropical realm, roughly a quarter are in Africa, and a fifth in Asia.
These realms can be further divided into major tropical forest regions based on biodiversity hotspots, including:
- Amazon: Includes parts of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela
- Congo: Includes parts of Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of Congo
- Australiasia: Includes parts of Australia, Indonesian half of New Guinea, Papua New Guinea
- Sundaland: Includes parts of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore
- Indo-Burma: Includes parts of Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam
- Mesoamerica: Includes parts of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama
- Wallacea: Sulawesi and the Maluku islands in Indonesia
- West Africa: Includes parts of Benin, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Togo
- Atlantic forest: Includes parts of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay
- Choco: Includes parts of Colombia, Ecuador, Panama
Dozens of countries have tropical forests. The countries with the largest areas of tropical forest are:
- Brazil
- Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
- Indonesia
- Peru
- Colombia
Other countries that have large areas of rainforest include Bolivia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ecuador, Gabon, Guyana, India, Laos, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Congo, Suriname, and Venezuela.
Cover and loss by rainforest region
| Primary forest extent | Tree cover extent | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rainforest region | 2001 | 2010 | 2020 | 2001 | 2010 | 2020 |
| Amazon | 556.7 | 543.5 | 526.2 | 673.4 | 658.6 | 628.9 |
| Congo | 173.7 | 172.2 | 167.6 | 301.2 | 300.3 | 287.7 |
| Australiasia | 61.8 | 65.4 | 64.4 | 76.3 | 91.3 | 89.1 |
| Sundaland | 39.9 | 57.3 | 51.0 | 67.7 | 121.6 | 103.1 |
| Indo-Burma | 15.3 | 42.6 | 40.1 | 37.8 | 153.0 | 139.1 |
| Mesoamerica | 43.7 | 17.4 | 16.0 | 160.3 | 54.3 | 49.8 |
| Wallacea | 18.1 | 15.2 | 14.6 | 56.2 | 26.1 | 24.5 |
| West Africa | 9.8 | 10.9 | 10.2 | 15.6 | 48.5 | 41.8 |
| Atlantic forest | 11.1 | 9.7 | 9.3 | 49.3 | 96.3 | 89.0 |
| Choco | 10.0 | 8.5 | 8.4 | 99.8 | 15.9 | 15.6 |
| PAN-TROPICS | 1,029.6 | 1,006.5 | 969.1 | 2,028.3 | 1,959.4 | 1,839.1 |
| Primary forest loss | Tree cover change | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002-09 | 2010-19 | 2002-09 | 2010-19 | |
| Rainforest region | M ha (%) | M ha (%) | M ha (%) | M ha (%) |
| Amazon | -13.18 (-2.4%) | -17.28 (-3.2%) | -14.7 (-2.2%) | -29.8 (-4.5%) |
| Congo | -1.46 (-0.8%) | -4.68 (-2.7%) | -0.8 (-0.3%) | -12.7 (-4.2%) |
| Australiasia | -0.29 (-0.5%) | -0.86 (-1.3%) | 0.2 (0.2%) | -1.4 (-1.5%) |
| Sundaland | -2.22 (-5.5%) | -3.67 (-6.4%) | -1.5 (-2.3%) | -9.5 (-7.8%) |
| Indo-Burma | -1.62 (-10.5%) | -2.14 (-5.0%) | -0.6 (-1.6%) | -6.4 (-4.2%) |
| Mesoamerica | -1.10 (-2.5%) | -2.51 (-14.4%) | -7.3 (-4.6%) | -13.9 (-25.6%) |
| Wallacea | -0.66 (-3.6%) | -1.36 (-8.9%) | -1.9 (-3.3%) | -4.6 (-17.5%) |
| West Africa | -0.30 (-3.1%) | -0.50 (-4.6%) | -0.1 (-0.8%) | -1.2 (-2.4%) |
| Atlantic forest | -0.24 (-2.1%) | -0.62 (-6.4%) | -0.7 (-1.5%) | -6.8 (-7.0%) |
| Choco | -0.33 (-3.3%) | -0.35 (-4.1%) | -3.5 (-3.5%) | -7.3 (-46.0%) |
| PAN-TROPICS | -23.11 (-2.2%) | -37.34 (-3.7%) | -68.9 (-3.4%) | -120.3 (-6.1%) |
Tropical forest cover and loss by country
| Units: million hectares | Primary forest extent | Tree cover extent 2001 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country | 2001 | 2010 | 2020 | 2001 | 2010 | 2020 |
| Brazil | 343.2 | 331.9 | 318.7 | 516.4 | 498.1 | 468.2 |
| DR Congo | 104.6 | 103.4 | 99.8 | 198.8 | 198.5 | 188.0 |
| Indonesia | 93.8 | 90.2 | 84.4 | 159.8 | 157.7 | 141.7 |
| Colombia | 54.8 | 54.2 | 53.3 | 81.6 | 81.7 | 79.3 |
| Peru | 69.1 | 68.5 | 67.2 | 77.9 | 78.6 | 76.5 |
| Bolivia | 40.8 | 39.9 | 38.1 | 64.4 | 62.7 | 58.9 |
| Venezuela | 38.6 | 38.5 | 38.1 | 56.4 | 57.3 | 56.1 |
| Angola | 2.5 | 2.4 | 2.3 | 49.7 | 48.3 | 46.8 |
| Central African Republic | 7.4 | 7.3 | 7.2 | 46.9 | 47.1 | 46.6 |
| Papua New Guinea | 32.6 | 32.4 | 31.9 | 42.9 | 42.9 | 41.9 |
| Mexico | 9.2 | 9.0 | 8.6 | 43.3 | 42.5 | 40.3 |
| China | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 42.8 | 41.1 | 38.5 |
| Myanmar | 14.0 | 13.8 | 13.5 | 42.8 | 40.9 | 38.2 |
| India | 10.2 | 10.1 | 9.9 | 35.1 | 31.4 | 30.2 |
| Cameroon | 19.1 | 19.0 | 18.5 | 30.6 | 29.7 | 28.7 |
| Republic of Congo | 21.2 | 21.1 | 20.8 | 26.4 | 26.6 | 26.0 |
| Argentina | 4.4 | 4.2 | 4.0 | 30.9 | 27.6 | 24.9 |
| Gabon | 22.7 | 22.6 | 22.4 | 24.7 | 24.7 | 24.4 |
| Malaysia | 15.9 | 15.0 | 13.3 | 29.1 | 28.6 | 23.8 |
| Mozambique | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 26.6 | 25.0 | 23.1 |
| Tanzania | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 21.8 | 20.6 | 19.3 |
| Guyana | 17.3 | 17.3 | 17.2 | 19.0 | 19.1 | 18.9 |
| Ecuador | 10.6 | 10.6 | 10.5 | 18.3 | 18.5 | 18.1 |
| Thailand | 5.9 | 5.9 | 5.8 | 19.8 | 19.0 | 17.7 |
| Philippines | 4.6 | 4.5 | 4.4 | 18.3 | 18.1 | 17.4 |
| Paraguay | 3.5 | 3.0 | 2.5 | 23.9 | 20.2 | 16.6 |
| Zambia | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 18.5 | 17.4 | 16.6 |
| Laos | 8.3 | 8.1 | 7.5 | 19.1 | 17.9 | 15.4 |
| Suriname | 12.8 | 12.7 | 12.6 | 13.9 | 14.0 | 13.9 |
| Rest of the tropics | 59.6 | 58.0 | 53.9 | 210.1 | 203.5 | 183.3 |
| Grand Total | 1,029.6 | 1,006.5 | 969.1 | 2,009.7 | 1,959.4 | 1,839.1 |
| Primary forest loss | Tree cover change | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002-09 | 2010-2019 | 2002-09 | 2010-2019 | |
| Country | M ha (%) | M ha (%) | M ha (%) | M ha (%) |
| Brazil | -11.37 (-3.3%) | -13.15 (-4.0%) | -18.25 (-3.5%) | -29.93 (-6.0%) |
| DR Congo | -1.16 (-1.1%) | -3.67 (-3.5%) | -0.37 (-0.2%) | -10.50 (-5.3%) |
| Indonesia | -3.63 (-3.9%) | -5.85 (-6.5%) | -2.09 (-1.3%) | -15.98 (-10.1%) |
| Colombia | -0.54 (-1.0%) | -0.96 (-1.8%) | 0.17 (0.2%) | -2.43 (-3.0%) |
| Peru | -0.60 (-0.9%) | -1.37 (-2.0%) | 0.68 (0.9%) | -2.10 (-2.7%) |
| Bolivia | -0.90 (-2.2%) | -1.84 (-4.6%) | -1.67 (-2.6%) | -3.75 (-6.0%) |
| Venezuela | -0.15 (-0.4%) | -0.33 (-0.9%) | 0.86 (1.5%) | -1.14 (-2.0%) |
| Angola | -0.03 (-1.2%) | -0.09 (-3.8%) | -1.37 (-2.8%) | -1.51 (-3.1%) |
| Central African Republic | -0.05 (-0.6%) | -0.11 (-1.5%) | 0.15 (0.3%) | -0.49 (-1.0%) |
| Papua New Guinea | -0.19 (-0.6%) | -0.55 (-1.7%) | 0.04 (0.1%) | -1.05 (-2.4%) |
| Mexico | -0.20 (-2.1%) | -0.40 (-4.4%) | -0.81 (-1.9%) | -2.22 (-5.2%) |
| China | -0.03 (-1.9%) | -0.04 (-2.4%) | -1.67 (-3.9%) | -2.66 (-6.5%) |
| Myanmar | -0.19 (-1.4%) | -0.38 (-2.8%) | -1.90 (-4.4%) | -2.70 (-6.6%) |
| India | -0.13 (-1.2%) | -0.20 (-2.0%) | -3.67 (-10.5%) | -1.18 (-3.8%) |
| Cameroon | -0.11 (-0.6%) | -0.50 (-2.6%) | -0.96 (-3.1%) | -1.02 (-3.4%) |
| Republic of Congo | -0.07 (-0.3%) | -0.25 (-1.2%) | 0.28 (1.0%) | -0.60 (-2.2%) |
| Argentina | -0.19 (-4.4%) | -0.21 (-5.0%) | -3.31 (-10.7%) | -2.69 (-9.8%) |
| Gabon | -0.08 (-0.3%) | -0.16 (-0.7%) | 0.02 (0.1%) | -0.29 (-1.2%) |
| Malaysia | -0.98 (-6.2%) | -1.65 (-11.0%) | -0.47 (-1.6%) | -4.84 (-16.9%) |
| Mozambique | 0.00 (-1.6%) | -0.01 (-7.5%) | -1.60 (-6.0%) | -1.95 (-7.8%) |
| Tanzania | -0.01 (-0.9%) | -0.02 (-2.8%) | -1.21 (-5.5%) | -1.31 (-6.3%) |
| Guyana | -0.03 (-0.2%) | -0.09 (-0.5%) | 0.07 (0.3%) | -0.14 (-0.8%) |
| Ecuador | -0.05 (-0.5%) | -0.12 (-1.2%) | 0.20 (1.1%) | -0.43 (-2.3%) |
| Thailand | -0.07 (-1.2%) | -0.05 (-0.9%) | -0.75 (-3.8%) | -1.31 (-6.9%) |
| Philippines | -0.05 (-1.1%) | -0.09 (-2.1%) | -0.18 (-1.0%) | -0.80 (-4.4%) |
| Paraguay | -0.46 (-13.3%) | -0.53 (-17.7%) | -3.69 (-15.4%) | -3.60 (-17.8%) |
| Zambia | 0.00 (-1.0%) | -0.02 (-6.5%) | -1.07 (-5.8%) | -0.77 (-4.4%) |
| Laos | -0.23 (-2.7%) | -0.55 (-6.8%) | -1.15 (-6.0%) | -2.58 (-14.4%) |
| Suriname | -0.02 (-0.2%) | -0.10 (-0.8%) | 0.05 (0.4%) | -0.14 (-1.0%) |
| Rest of the tropics | -1.59 (-2.7%) | -4.04 (-7.0%) | -6.59 (-3.1%) | -20.17 (-9.9%) |
| Grand Total | -23.11 (-2.2%) | -37.34 (-3.7%) | -50.27 (-2.5%) | -120.27 (-6.1%) |
RAINFOREST STRUCTURE
Rainforests are characterized by a unique vegetative structure consisting of several vertical layers including the overstory, canopy, understory, shrub layer, and ground level. The canopy refers to the dense ceiling of leaves and tree branches formed by closely spaced forest trees. The upper canopy is 100-130 feet above the forest floor, penetrated by scattered emergent trees, 130 feet or higher, that make up the level known as the overstory. Below the canopy ceiling are multiple leaf and branch levels known collectively as the understory. The lowest part of the understory, 5-20 feet (1.5-6 meters) above the floor, is known as the shrub layer, made up of shrubby plants and tree saplings.
RAINFOREST BIODIVERSITY
Tropical rainforests support the greatest diversity of living organisms on Earth. Although they cover less than 2 percent of Earth’s surface, rainforests house more than 50 percent of the plants and animals on the planet.
- Climate: because rainforests are located in tropical regions, they receive a lot of sunlight. The sunlight is converted to energy by plants through the process of photosynthesis. Since there is a lot of sunlight, there is a lot of energy in the rainforest. This energy is stored in plant vegetation, which is eaten by animals. The abundance of energy supports an abundance of plant and animal species.
- Canopy: the canopy structure of the rainforest provides an abundance of places for plants to grow and animals to live. The canopy offers sources of food, shelter, and hiding places, providing for interaction between different species. For example, there are plants in the canopy called bromeliads that store water in their leaves. Frogs and other animals use these pockets of water for hunting and laying their eggs.
- Competition: while there is lots of energy in the rainforest system, life is not easy for most species that inhabit the biome. In fact, the rainforest is an intensively competitive place, with species developing incredible strategies and innovations to survive, encouraging specialization.
THE RAINFOREST CANOPY
In the rainforest most plant and animal life is not found on the forest floor, but in the leafy world known as the canopy. The canopy, which may be over 100 feet (30 m) above the ground, is made up of the overlapping branches and leaves of rainforest trees. Scientists estimate that more than half of life in the rainforest is found in the trees, making this the richest habitat for plant and animal life.
The conditions of the canopy are markedly different from the conditions of the forest floor. During the day, the canopy is drier and hotter than other parts of the forest, and the plants and animals that live there have adapted accordingly. For example, because the amount of leaves in the canopy can make it difficult to see more than a few feet, many canopy animals rely on loud calls or lyrical songs for communication. Gaps between trees mean that some canopy animals fly, glide, or jump to move about in the treetops. Meanwhile plants have evolved water-retention mechanisms like waxy leaves.
Scientists have long been interested in studying the canopy, but the height of trees made research difficult until recently. Today the canopy is commonly accessed using climbing gear, rope bridges, ladders, and towers. Researchers are even using model airplanes and quadcopters outfitted with special sensors — conservation drones — to study the canopy.
The rainforest floor
The rainforest floor is often dark and humid due to constant shade from the leaves of canopy trees. The canopy not only blocks out sunlight, but dampens wind and rain, and limits shrub growth.
Despite its constant shade, the ground floor of the rainforest is the site for important interactions and complex relationships. The forest floor is one of the principal sites of decomposition, a process paramount for the continuance of the forest as a whole. It provides support for trees responsible for the formation of the canopy and is also home to some of the rainforest's best-known species, including gorillas, tigers, tapirs, and elephants, among others.
Rainforest waters
Tropical rainforests support some of the largest rivers in the world, like the Amazon, Mekong, Negro, Orinoco, and Congo. These mega-rivers are fed by countless smaller tributaries, streams, and creeks. For example, the Amazon alone has some 1,100 tributaries, 17 of which are over 1,000 miles long. Although large tropical rivers are fairly uniform in appearance and water composition, their tributaries vary greatly.
Rainforest waters are home to a wealth of wildlife that is nearly as diverse as the biota on land. For example, more than 5,600 species of fish have been identified in the Amazon Basin alone.
But like rainforests, tropical ecosystems are also threatened. Dams, deforestation, channelization and dredging, pollution, mining, and overfishing are chief dangers.
Rainforest people
Tropical rainforests have long been home to tribal peoples who rely on their surroundings for food, shelter, and medicines. Today very few forest people live in traditional ways; most have been displaced by outside settlers, have been forced to give up their lifestyles by governments, or have chosen to adopt outside customs.
Of the remaining forest people, the Amazon supports the largest number of Indigenous people living in traditional ways, although these people, too, have been impacted by the modern world. Nonetheless, Indigenous peoples' knowledge of medicinal plants remains unmatched and they have a great understanding of the ecology of the Amazon rainforest.
In Africa there are native forest dwellers sometimes known as pygmies. The tallest of these people, also called the Mbuti, rarely exceed 5 feet in height. Their small size enables them to move about the forest more efficiently than taller people.
There are few forest peoples in Asia living in fully traditional ways. The last nomadic people in Borneo are thought to have settled in the late 2000's. New Guinea and the Andaman Islands are generally viewed as the last frontiers for forest people in Asia and the Pacific.
Deforestation
Every year an area of rainforest the size of New Jersey is cut down and destroyed, mostly the result of human activities. We are cutting down rainforests for many reasons, including:
- wood for both timber and making fires;
- agriculture for both small and large farms;
- land for poor farmers who don’t have anywhere else to live;
- grazing land for cattle (the single biggest driver of deforestation in the Amazon);
- plantations, including wood-pulp for making paper, oil palm for making palm oil, and rubber;
- road construction; and
- extraction of minerals and energy.
In recent decades there has been an important shift in deforestation trends. Today export-driven industries are driving a bigger share of deforestation than ever before, marking a shift from previous decades, when most tropical deforestation was the product of poor farmers trying to put food on the table for their families. There are important implications from this change. While companies have a greater capacity to chop down forests than small farmers, they are more sensitive to pressure from environmentalists. Thus in recent years, it has become easier—and more ethical—for green groups to go after corporations than after poor farmers.
Rainforests are also threatened by climate change, which is contributing to droughts in parts of the Amazon and Southeast Asia. Drought causes die-offs of trees and dries out leaf litter, increasing the risk of forest fires, which are often set by land developers, ranchers, plantation owners, and loggers.
Rainforest importance
While rainforests may seem like a distant concern, they are critically important for our well-being. Rainforests are often called the lungs of the planet for their role in absorbing carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, and producing oxygen, upon which all animals depend for survival. Rainforests also stabilize climate, house incredible amounts of plants and wildlife, and produce nourishing rainfall all around the planet.
Rainforests:
- Help stabilize the world’s climate: Rainforests help stabilize the world’s climate by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Scientists have shown that excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from human activities is contributing to climate change. Therefore, living rainforests have an important role in mitigating climate change, but when rainforests are chopped down and burned, the carbon stored in their wood and leaves is released into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change.
- Provide a home to many plants and animals: Rainforests are 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.
- 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 (in which plants release water from their leaves during photosynthesis). This moisture contributes to the formation of rain clouds, which release the water back onto the rainforest. In the Amazon, 50-80 percent of moisture remains in the ecosystem’s water cycle. When forests are cut down, less moisture goes into the atmosphere and rainfall declines, sometimes leading to drought. Rainforests also have a role in global weather patterns. For example researchers have shown that forests in South America affect rainfall in the United States, while forests in Southeast Asia influence rain patterns in southeastern Europe and China. Distant rainforests are therefore important to farmers everywhere.
- Protect against flood, drought, and erosion: Rainforests have been compared to natural sponges, moderating flood and drought cycles by slowing run-off and contributing moisture to the local atmosphere. Rainforests are also important in reducing soil erosion by anchoring the ground with their roots. When trees are cut down there is no longer anything to protect the ground, and soils are quickly washed away with rain. On steep hillsides, loss of forest can trigger landslides.
- Are a source for medicines and foods and support forest-dependent people: People have long used forests as a source of food, wood, medicine, and recreation. When forests are lost, they can no longer provide these resources. Instead people must find other places to get these goods and services. They also must find ways to pay for the things they once got for free from the forest.
Rainforest conservation
Rainforests are disappearing very quickly. The good news is there are a lot of people who want to save rainforests. The bad news is that saving rainforests will be a challenge as it means humanity will need to shift away from business-as-usual practices by developing new policies and economic measures to creative incentives for preserving forests as healthy and productive ecosystems.
Over the past decade there has been considerable progress on several conservation fronts. Policymakers and companies are increasingly valuing rainforests for the services they afford, setting aside large blocks of forests in protected areas and setting up new financial mechanisms that compensate communities, state and local governments, and countries for conserving forests. Meanwhile, forest-dependent people are gaining more management control over the forests they have long stewarded. Large international companies are finally establishing policies that exclude materials sourced via deforestation. People are abandoning rural areas, leading to forest recovery in some planes.
But the battle is far from over. Growing population and consumption means that rainforests will continue to face intense pressures. At the same time, climate change threatens to dramatically alter temperatures and precipitation patterns, potentially pushing some forests toward critical tipping points.
Thus the future of the world's rainforests in very much in our hands. The actions we take in the next 20 years will determine whether rainforests, as we currently know them, are around to sustain and nourish future generations of people and wildlife.
The Latest News on Rainforests
All conservation is local: Interview with Angolan conservationist Kerllen Costa (May 23 2024)
- Kerllen Costa is the manager for a project run by the Kissama
Foundation to protect Afromontane forests on Mount Moco, Angola’s
highest mountain.
- Costa says he approaches conservation by looking
at how communities already manage their landscapes and resources, and
trying to introduce measures that recognize and enhance those systems.
-
He says building on traditional ecological knowledge can help to
sustain landscapes and the communities and wildlife they support, even
in the absence of formally recognized protected areas.
Tracing Africa’s ‘fading biological fingerprints’ in Angola’s threatened forests (May 23 2024)
- Angola’s Afromontane forests are considered to be the country’s most
threatened habitat type due to logging, wood harvesting and fire.
- Experts say the forests are relics that harbor “fading biological fingerprints” from a previous epoch.
-
It’s not just species living in the closed-canopy forests that could be
threatened by the loss of this ecosystem, but those that live alongside
them.
- They include the Huambo cisticola, a species now known to be
unique to Angola that lives in the ecotone, or transition zone, between
forest patches and surrounding grasslands.
Guyana road projects spark concerns for future development on wetlands (May 21 2024)
- A series of ongoing road projects traveling over 500 kilometers (310
miles) from the capital of Georgetown to the city of Lethem, in the
south, are supposed to improve access to more rural parts of Guyana
while facilitating international trade, most notably with Brazil.
-
But the project also crosses sensitive wetlands and Indigenous
communities, raising concerns about how the government will manage
future development there.
- Some of the roads cross through the
Rupununi wetlands and Iwokrama Rainforest, where a unique watershed
connects the Amazon River and Essequibo River basins.
Global markets and their effects on resource exploitation in the Pan Amazon (May 21 2024)
- Extractive companies operate to maximize their profits as global
demand is highly fluctuating. Prior to 2000, the prices of industrial
minerals were at historical lows, but jumped through the next two
decades as China began its infrastructure boom.
- As of January 2023,
another commodity boom appears to be underway. In part, this is due to
the war in Ukraine and the (as yet unknown) dimensions and duration of
the sanctions regime imposed on Russia by the United States, the
European Union and their allies in Asia-Pacific.
- As minerals
required by the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy
are plentiful in the Pan Amazon, there will be significant economic
pressure to develop those resources.
- Governments in the Pan Amazon
are predisposed to support the mining and hydrocarbon industries because
they are export-oriented and generate revenues for the state.
Beyond deforestation, oil palm estates pose flood and water contamination risks (May 21 2024)
- Clearing of forests for oil palm plantations can increase flooding
risk and water contamination for downstream communities, a new study
shows.
- The research focused on the Kais River watershed in
Indonesian Papua, where about 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) of forest
have been clear for plantations as of 2021.
- For the Indigenous Kais
community living downstream, this period has coincided with an increase
in flooding and a decline in water quality.
- The raised flooding
risk comes from the fact that oil palms aren’t nearly as effective as
forest trees in slowing rainwater runoff, while the water contamination
has been traced to the intensive use of agrochemicals on the
plantations.
Critics see payback in Indonesia’s plan to grant mining permits to religious groups (May 21 2024)
- Indonesia’s investment minister, Bahlil Lahadalia, has presented a
government plan to give mining licenses to the country’s religious
communities.
- Civil society groups have responded to the proposal by
highlighting the lack of relevant expertise, as well as legal clauses
that would currently preclude such a policy shift.
- The policy idea
follows a move in 2022 to revoke operating permits over millions of
hectares of land that were originally awarded to companies, but had sat
undeveloped for years.
A forest restoration project brings birdsong back to Angola’s highest mountain (May 20 2024)
- Fires and unsustainable wood harvesting have depleted the Afromontane forests on Mount Moco, Angola’s highest mountain.
- The forests are home to a diverse variety of birds, some found only in Angola.
- Since 2010, a conservation project has sought to regrow some of the forest patches and to protect them from wildfires.
-
The work is promoting bird conservation, but also benefiting the local
human community by ensuring a reliable flow of freshwater out of the
forest.
Organized crime puts unprecedented pressure on Guatemala’s largest rainforest (May 20 2024)
- The Maya Biosphere Reserve, stretching 2.2 million hectares (5.3
million acres) across northern Guatemala, has seen a wave of land
invasions this year in areas that have historically not faced threats of
colonization, like Naachtún-Dos Lagunas Biotope and Mirador-Rio Azul
National Park.
- Those arrested for the incursions are often more
heavily armed than in the past, something that the unarmed park guards
can’t always handle on their own.
- Observers say criminal groups
want to take advantage of the government’s broad support for agrarian
reform to gain access to the land, which can be used to launder money on
cattle ranches and move drugs across the Mexican border.
Photos confirm narcotraffickers operating in Peru’s Kakataibo Indigenous Reserve (May 17 2024)
- During a flyover on March 15 this year, Indigenous organizations and
Ministry of Culture officials observed evidence of drug production and
trafficking activity inside the Kakataibo Indigenous Reserve.
- They
found three clandestine landing strips, one of them located in the
center of the reserve, as well as large patches of deforested areas in
the middle of the rainforest, some of them planted with illegal coca
crops.
- The reserve was established in 2021 to protect Indigenous
groups living in isolation, but has already lost more than 1,500
hectares (3,700 acres) through illegal deforestation since then.
Setback for Guinea mine that threatens World Heritage chimp reserve (May 15 2024)
- Liberian President Joseph Boakai is backing U.K.-Indian firm ArcelorMittal over access to a key railway in northern Liberia.
-
U.S. firm HPX wants to use the rail line to ship ore from its own
project in neighboring Guinea to the Liberian port at Buchanan.
-
HPX’s plan to mine ore from Guinea’s Nimba Mountains has encountered
fierce opposition from some environmentalists, who say it would imperil
the area’s tool-using chimpanzees.
- HPX has said it will partner
with South Africa’s Guma Group to build a new railway in Liberia that
runs parallel to the existing one, but the plans are reportedly in
jeopardy over financing.
On a Borneo mountainside, Indigenous Dayak women hold fire and defend forest (May 15 2024)
- Indigenous women in Indonesian Borneo often have to combine domestic
responsibilities with food cultivation, known as behuma in the dialect
of the Dayak Pitap community in South Kalimantan province.
- Swidden
agriculture relies on burning off discarded biomass before planting land
in order to fertilize soil and limit pest infestations. But a law
enforcement campaign to tackle wildfires has seen criminal prosecutions
of at least 11 Borneo women for using fire to grow small-scale food
crops from 2018-2022.
- Dayak women and several fieldworkers say the
practice of burning is safe owing to cultural safeguards against fires
spreading that have been passed down families for centuries.
-
Indonesia’s 2009 Environment Law included a stipulation that farmers
cultivating food on less than 2 hectares (5 acres) were exempt from
prosecution, but Mongabay analysis shows prosecutors and police have
pressed charges against small farmers using other laws.
Environmental defenders paid the price during Panama’s historic mining protests – report (May 14 2024)
- Last year’s protests against a copper mine in Panama resulted in
injuries, lost eyesight and several deaths, according to a new report
from the Foundation for Integral Community Development and the
Conservation of Ecosystems in Panama (FUNDICCEP) and Panamanian National
Network in Defense of Water.
- The protests were in response to a
new contract for the Cobre Panamá copper mine operated by Minera Panamá,
a subsidiary of the Canadian mining company First Quantum Minerals
(FQM).
- Environmental defenders are concerned that another crackdown
could take place should there be protests against renewed mining
negotiations with the government of President-elect José Raúl Mulino,
who takes office July 1.
Hold my ointment: Wild orangutan observed healing wound with medicinal plant (May 14 2024)
- Researchers observed a wild orangutan in Sumatra treating a facial
wound with a plant known for its healing properties, marking the first
documented case of such behavior in a wild animal.
- The adult male
Sumatran orangutan was observed chewing on the plant Fibraurea
tinctoria, which has pain-relieving and anti-inflammatory effects, and
rubbing the resultant ointment on the wound, which later healed without
infection.
- This finding supports the idea that orangutans might
self-medicate, demonstrating their cognitive abilities and drawing
parallels to human practices.
- Conservationists have welcomed the
finding, highlighting its significance for understanding forest
biodiversity and the urgency of protecting orangutan habitat amid
declining populations and persistent threats.
Latest palm oil deforester in Indonesia may also be operating illegally (May 13 2024)
- The biggest deforestation hotspot for palm oil in Indonesia is located
on a small island off the southern Borneo coast, new data show.
- Up
to 10,650 hectares (26,317 acres) of forest — one-sixth the size of
Jakarta — were cleared from 2022-2023 inside the concession of PT Multi
Sarana Agro Mandiri (MSAM), part of the influential Jhonlin Group.
- Activists say the company’s operations may be illegal, given the questionable process through which it obtained its permits.
-
However, law enforcers have ignored calls to investigate, and previous
efforts by journalists to expose the group’s business practices have led
to their criminal prosecution on hate speech charges.
Despite drought, Amazon deforestation alerts hit five-year low (May 10 2024)
- The Brazilian Amazon experienced a 47% decrease in deforestation in
April compared to last year, marking the lowest level in five years, and
a 51% decrease over the past 12 months.
- Since President Luiz
Inácio Lula da Silva took office in January 2023, his administration has
effectively curbed deforestation by reinstating conservation programs,
strengthening environmental agencies, and supporting Indigenous rights.
-
The decline in deforestation occurred despite a severe drought
affecting the region, which includes record fires in the state of
Roraima.
Source: The Rainforest - Mongabay
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