Rainforest: An important resource

This is the Amazon rainforest. The climate here is warm and humid - the conditions are perfect for an astonishing variety of plants to grow. Plenty of plants means plenty of food for animals, which makes the rainforest a great place for them to live in. At one point, more than 10,000 years ago, the Amazon rainforest also became home to humans. Let's go back in time and see what it was like back then.

The people living in the Amazon rainforest gather fruit and edible plants, and hunt animals. They also use wood or weaving materials, such as rattan, to make things they need. Over time, people of these native tribes, indigenous people, keep discovering new things about the rainforest. They realise that some plants can be used to treat wounds or illnesses. They learn to use natural materials from plants, for example natural rubber latex, which can make textiles waterproof.

They also develop a special farming method. To grow crops, the indigenous tribes clear a small patch of land and burn off the vegetation growing there. The ash that results, adds nutrients to the soil. This allows people to grow a variety of crops for several years in the same spot. Once the nutrients in the soil are used up, the tribe leaves that plot of land and moves elsewhere.

This gives the forest a chance to recover. This traditional farming method is called shifting cultivation. It has allowed the indigenous peoples of the Amazon to live and farm in the rainforest for thousands of years, without causing the forest lasting damage. Let’s fast forward a few centuries. It's the 1500’s now and Europeans arrive in the Americas.

Europeans recognise the value of the natural resources that exist in the rainforest: exotic fruit, spices, timber, and natural rubber, which they later learn to turn into refined rubber. When they settle in the Americas, the Europeans also discover the resources hidden beneath the forest floor, for example metals, such as gold, copper, and iron. They start extracting metals and sell them for great profit overseas. Land itself becomes a valuable resource. Time goes by, larger and larger areas of the rainforest are cut down to create more space for settlements and cities.

To produce greater quantities of food, farming methods change. This requires more land. Rainforest is destroyed to create grazing land for cattle or to plant one type of crop over and over again. These forest areas are never given a chance to regenerate. This has happened to nearly all rainforests around the world.

Over the last 100 years about half of all rainforests have disappeared as a result of human activity - mining, deforestation, and large-scale farming. And only recently have people started to realise that when rainforests are cut down, we might be losing much more than we gain: rainforests filter water, prevent soil erosion, help regulate climate and weather around the world. They can absorb great amounts of carbon dioxide too - a gas that contributes to changes in climate. Rainforests are also home to the greatest variety of plants and animals on the planet; some of which exist nowhere else. As rainforests are destroyed, many of these species risk disappearing forever.

Deforestation is also a danger to lifestyle and to the cultural heritage of the indigenous tribes still living in rainforests. If we want to preserve the incredible resources rainforests provide, we need to ensure the rainforests survive. Hm, maybe you have some ideas about what can be done to protect the rainforests.