How to: Help Save The Rainforests

By: Stephanie Jelenic-Deb

The Rainforests are places that we have all heard of, but unfortunately,
most of us don’t know much about them. The disappearances of these
wondrous places are a very important environmental issue that we are
currently facing.  

There are two types of rainforests: Tropical Rainforests and Temperate
Rainforests.  Tropical Rainforests exist mainly near the equator, and have
from 160 to 400 inches of rain a year. Temperate Rainforests are mild
weather forests, not located near the equator, that have more than eighty
inches of rain per year. Rainforests are home to two-thirds of all living
animal and plant species on earth. It has been estimated that many
hundreds of millions of species of plants, insects and microorganisms are
still undiscovered.

Laura Berthold is a graduate of Loyola University Chicago in
Environmental Studies. She is currently doing an internship at the
Bureau of Land Management Arizona Strip Field Office in St. George,
Utah. There she works with the wildlife biologist monitoring different
endangered wildlife species on the strip. She was also a participant in
Antioch University’s Brazilian Ecosystems study abroad program and was
in Brazil for three months, where she traveled around the country
studying the different ecosystems, including the Atlantic Rainforest, the
Amazon Rainforest, the Pantanel Wetlands, and the Cerrado (dry area).

“While in the Atlantic Rainforest, we went to several different areas. This
is a particularly important area, since there is only 7% of the rainforest
left and it is severely fragmented,” she said. “We visited a private reserve
that is owned by a cosmetics company. There we learned how the private
company was trying to work with the local people to prevent them from
illegally harvesting palm hearts from palm trees. To make up for the loss
of income from not harvesting the trees, the company helped the people
set up a basket business. They taught the people how to weave the baskets
from sustainable and renewable materials. The company then sold these
baskets along with their makeup. This helped the economy in the local
area as well as helping this endangered plant species.”

Laura also visited two different parts of the Amazon - Manaus and
Santerem. “While in Manaus, we stayed at a sustainable logging reserve.
“I will never forget watching a tree being cut down. The tree was one of
the tallest in the surrounding area and was very thick so it took a long
time for them to chainsaw it down. But when it fell, there was a creek and
a whoosh and you could see the tree taking down other trees with it as it
landed to the ground with a thud.”

Laura also had the pleasure of encountering a lot of the native people,
animals, and plants. “I got to work with a jaguar, ocelots, jaguarundis,
owls, deer, McCaw’s, wild dog, the manned wolf, and many others. My
favorite was the howler monkey, because I got to help measure and take
its blood samples when he came in. That was a really neat experience. In
the wild, we mostly saw birds, dolphins, insects, monkeys, etc. But it’s
very hard to see animals in the rainforest since there are so many places
to hide. That is why species are still being uncovered in the Amazon. This
is one of the reasons that we must fight to protect our rainforests,” says
Laura.

Unfortunately, the rainforests are in danger for many reasons and are
quickly disappearing - they are being cut down to make room for new
cities, businesses, and houses. Logging is also occurring at an alarming
rate. It has fragmented the forest and decreased its biodiversity, and the
size of the rainforest.

You might not be aware of this, but the disappearance of the rainforests
will ultimately directly affect all of us. Laura says, “Specifically with the
Amazon, there will be a drastic difference in climate. Since the Amazon is
such a large rainforest, it helps to keep the rest of the world’s climate in
check. Without the Amazon, the rest of the world’s climate will change.
Another reason why we want to help save the rainforest is that the trees
there help to bring us oxygen. Deforestation is adding to climate change,
by increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which is a
greenhouse gas that helps to cause climate change. Within the rainforests
of the world, there lies high biological diversity that we have not even
discovered yet. Breakthroughs in science and medicine can be found in
these rainforests. Lastly, we live in an amazing world, where humans,
animals, plants, and different environments are, each is entitled to live
and humans shouldn’t continue destroying it. We depend on each part of
the environment for our survival.”

The rainforests are important for so many reasons. To Laura, “needless
destruction of a beautiful, mysterious place is like destroying a work of
priceless art (except more important). The rainforest is a magical place
where animals, plants, and strange organisms interact. As humans, we
can’t begin to understand the devastation that will be caused be our
actions. We see something that can benefit us and we take it, without
even thinking about the consequences.”

Now it’s up to each and every one of us to help save the rainforests. All of
the beautiful animals, insects, plants, and people need our help, and there
are many ways that you can become involved:

•         If you are interested in the trip that Laura took. Take a look at
Antioch Education Abroad’s website http://aea.antioch.edu
•        Other great websites to help you become involved:
http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/
http://ran.org/
http://www.gocities.com/RainForest/Jungle/8782/

•        Ways to make a difference in your everyday life:
- Use less paper products and buy recycled products.
- Walk, bike, take public transportation, or car pool.
- Don’t buy any products that are made from rainforests or illegally taken
from there such as furs, butterflies, bones of animals, and live illegally
traded animals (buying these motivates more people to take more animals
and rare plants from the rainforest).
- Learn and spread the word.
- Decrease the amount of energy and natural resources that you use (a lot
of these are found in rainforests and more dependence encourages more
harvesting and mining)- turn off your lights and other electrical items,
unplug your electrical items (still uses energy while plugged in!), try to
not to put the heating and air conditioning on to full blast.
- Water conservation.