- Rainforests cover less than two percent of the Earth’s surface, yet they are home to 50 to 70 percent of all life forms on our planet.
- As many as 30 million species of plants and animals – more than half of all life forms – live in tropical rainforests.
- One acre of rainforest can have as many as 80 different tree species, as compared to only up to 25 species, in the forests of the USA.
- 11/12ths of the world’s ferns are found in the rainforests.
- Rainforest vines can grow longer than a football field, and thicker than a man’s body. Some leaves can reach six feet in length!
- North America has about 850 different species of trees. In the forests of the Amazon, an area half the size of England holds 2500 different tree species!
- Epiphytes are plants that don’t need soil to live. They are commonly called “Air Plants”, and live in trees that are in the rainforest. They derive all the nutrients and water they need either directly from the air, or from the water and debris that falls from the trees in the canopy. Orchids are the most famous of epiphytes, and as many as 50 different orchids have been found on ONE single rainforest tree! Over 27,000 species of air plants have been found in the rainforests.
- Of all the plants that have cancer fighting pharmacological properties, over 70 percent are found in tropical rainforests.
- Every second, an area the size of a football field of rainforest land is burned, bulldozed, and completely destroyed.
- In one minute, the time it will take to read these facts, an area equal to 10 city blocks of rainforests will vanish forever- over 2.4 acres a second! Over 214,000 acres a day are destroyed, amounting to an area larger than the country of Poland, every single year… over 78 million acres a year, until nothing remains… or we stop it, whichever comes first. For our sakes, I pray it is the latter.
- At the current rate of destruction, by the end of the century, nothing will remain. The children of the future will have to read about hundreds of thousands of extinct plants, animals, and other life that lives in the rainforest.
- Tropical Rainforests encircling the equatorial region once amounted to over 8 million square miles, now, less than 3 million square miles remain.
- Latin America and Asia, which once held nearly half of all rainforests, have lost nearly half of their tropical wonderlands. With them, countless birds, insects, plants, and other life has been wiped out forever. Many of the species of plants and animals are extinct before ever being seen and identified.
- Scientists estimate an average of 137 species of life forms become extinct every day… 50,000 each year.
- The United States has less than 3% of it’s original forests left! 97 percent, have been logged, burned, and completely obliterated!
- If the destruction of rainforests continue at the current rate, scientists estimate nearly 80-90 percent of tropical rainforest ecosystems will be destroyed by the year 2040.
- In a reserve about half the size of San Franciso in Peru, there are over 545 species of birds, over 100 species of dragonflies, and nearly 800 different types of butterflies. Half of the plants there haven’t even been named yet.
- Nearly 17 percent of all the birds in the world reside in the rainforests of Indonesia.
- The Rainforests of Southeast Asia have nearly 660 mammal species, and over 850 amphibian species, nearly one third of ALL the mammals and amphibians in the world. Compared to Europe, which has only about 130 native mammal species.
- One out of every three bird species is found in the rainforest. In one wildlife reserve in Costa Rica, there are more bird species than in the entire North American continent!
- Insects are the most numerous inhabitants of the rainforest. Since many have never even been seen, much less identified, an estimate is that there are over 80 million species of insects that live in the rainforests.
- In one square mile of rainforest in Africa, biologists have counted over 300 different types of butterflies alone.
Don’t buy tropical wood products. Skip the rosewood and mahogany furniture and paneling. If you’re a carpenter or building contractor, don’t buy plywood made from rainforest timber, and help your customers to understand the importance of avoiding tropical woods. If you are an architect or designer, don’t select tropical hardwoods for construction.
Change your diet. Don’t eat rainforest beef. It’s typically found in fast-food hamburgers or processed beef products. Each year the U.S. imports over 100 million pounds of fresh and frozen beef from Central American countries. Two thirds of these countries’ rainforest has been cleared primarily to raise cattle, whose stringy, cheap meat is exported to profit the U.S. food industry. Because the beef is not labeled with its county of origin upon entering the U.S., there is no way to trace it to it’s sources. Write to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and let him know that you want a ban on the import of beef from rainforest countries.
Only buy foods like bananas and coffee that are grown in a sustainable way that is safe for the environment, for wildlife, and for people.
Visit the Rainforest Alliance and learn about Rainforests, how to help save them, and what you can do around the house that helps.