Ecology and cacao production
Part 2: The Wealth of the Rainforest | Part 3: Rainforest Action
Part 1: The Disappearing Rainforests
Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth; now they cover just 6%. Experts estimate that the remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years. Every second 1.5 acres of rainforest are lost - cleared by chainsaws, bulldozers and human-made fires, with tragic consequences for the whole planet. Rainforests are destroyed because their main value is seen in their timber, oil and metals by short-sighted governments, companies, and land owners. Farming and ranching operations may follow, often undertaken by companies.
Devastation results for the whole planet. Nearly half of the world's plants, animals and microoganisms will be destroyed or severely threatened over the next quarter century due to Rainforest deforestation. Experts estimates that we're losing 137 plant, animal and insect species every single day - 50,000 species a year - through Rainforest destruction. As these species disappear, so do many possible cures for life-threatening diseases. Currently, 121 prescription drugs and 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients,though less than 1% of tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists. Greater treasures lie unknown.
Ten million indigenous peoples lived in the Amazon five centuries ago.
Today there are less than 200,000. In Brazil, colonialization has
destroyed more than 90 indigenous tribes since the 1900's - and their
accumulated knowledge of the medicinal value of the rainforest. As
deforestation continues, rainforest peoples are further disappearing.
Most medicine men and shamans in the Rainforests today are 70 years old
or more. When a medicine man dies without passing his arts on to the
next generation, the tribe and the world lose thousands of years of
irreplaceable knowledge - as if a library has burned down