The Tropical Rainforest – Their HomeOf the nearly 250,000 flowering plants known, 170,000 or 68 percent occur in the tropics and subtropics, making tropical rainforests among the most diverse and complex living environments on Earth. Those of the Far East, including Borneo and Sumatra, may be some of the most complex of all. Borneo and Sumatra support 10% of Indonesia’s known plant species, 12.5% of its mammals, and 17% of its other vertebrates. Borneo alone has 10,000-15,000 species of flowering plants. That is as rich as the whole of Africa, which is 40 times larger, and 10 times richer than the British Isles. In addition Borneo has 3000 species of trees, 2000 orchids, and 1000 ferns. One tiny 1.12 hectare Bornean rainforest plot included 264 tree species and that did not include its palms, lianas, orchids, ferns and other vegetation. Borneo’s animal life is no less diverse. It supports on the order of 222 mammals, 420 birds, 166 serpents, 100 amphibians, and 394 fresh-water fish, not to mention the invertebrates, by far the most numerous animal species in tropical rainforests. Many of these life forms are endemic, or unique to the island — proboscis monkeys, hornbills, gibbons, cloud leopards, orangutans… Each of these organisms is dependent on the whole ecosystem functioning - like a house of cards is dependent on all of its cards. If whole areas of forest are clear-cut, the whole system fails; habitats for thousands of species disappear, and are lost forever. Once the forest is gone, the tropical, acidic, and nutrient poor soils make it difficult for crops to prosper for more than a few years, eventually being replaced by weeds or coarse grasses such as alang-alang in Indonesia. Such plants as alang-alang have no economic uses, are very hardy, are not edible and may be alleliotrophic, meaning that other plants are repelled from growing nearby. These areas become much like a desert. |
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Today roads cross much of Borneo’s remote interior. Commercial logging concessions cover more than 30 percent of Indonesia’s landmass. Poor concession management, slash and burn agriculture, illegal logging and the massive expansion of palm oil plantations have all contributed to a decreasing rainforest habitat. The fires of 1997 and 1998 eliminated thousands of acres of forest and were termed by the UN as one of the worst ecological disasters of the century. It is estimated that 1/3 of the wild orangutan population was lost during this time, and Indonesian people suffered widespread respiratory and other health problems due to smoke inhalation. Massive floods and contaminated drinking water are just two of the consequences of illegal logging to the people living in Indonesia and Malaysia.
The value of biological diversity and the rainforest can only be estimated. Every time an acre of rainforest is burned or chopped down, we might lose a cure for cancer or AIDS. Scientists have already seen it happen. A chemical that was a potential cure for AIDS was found in the bark of a gum tree in Malaysia (Sarawak). Scientists took a sample of the bark and studied it to see if it killed the AIDS virus. The results looked good, so the scientists returned to Malaysia to get more samples for further study. When they got there, the tree was gone. The scientists looked for another tree like it, but none was found. It was believed that what could have been a cure for AIDS was gone forever. After several years of continued searching another tree was found in Sarawak on the island of Borneo, and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) could continue the testing on the chemical compounds of this tree. Today clinical testing on human has begun using the medicine developed from this tree. The government of Sarawak has declared this species to be protected and formed a Biodiversity Center which will continue the search for other life-saving medical miracles. |
Not only do rainforests provide medicines to help treat many human diseases, but they also provide different types of delicious foods, and other materials that we use in our everyday lives, and produce oxygen and clean the air we breathe. But humans need to learn to use these beneficial rainforest materials wisely, so that we don’t use them up all at once. Using rainforest materials in a wise manner is called “sustainable development”, which means we take only what rainforest plants we need, and leave enough behind to regrow, regenerate, and repopulate, so that humans can benefit from these materials for many years to come. It also means that we leave enough of the rainforest behind so that orangutans and other rainforest animals will have a safe and secure home with all of the materials they need to survive well into the future. It is believed that in the long run the rainforests of Indonesia are much more valuable to the people of Indonesia if they are allowed to thrive intact, free from major disturbances such as logging and clear cutting for large scale plantations. For instance, a hectare of land in Indonesia, which is about the size of 2 football fields, can produce about $4800-$6000 of goods per year using sustainable development, the wise use of rainforest products. A hectare of land that is cut for the wood and timber, leaving nothing behind, will produce only $3600 worth of wood-one time only. There won’t be any wood to cut on that hectare the next year. Soon all the wood will be gone, and so will the income from timber. Keeping the rainforests intact could generate over $10 million in income for Indonesians year after year after year. At the same time, orangutans and other forest plants and animals will survive for years to come. According to http://rainforest.care2.com, we are (globally) losing 33.8 million acres of tropical forest per year. More than the total area of New Hampshire, Vermont, Mass. RI, Conn, NJ, and Delaware combined. 2.8 million acres lost per month; 93,000 acres per day 3,8000 acres an hour, 64 acres a minute. Dr. Herman Rijksen sums up benefits of the tropical rainforest for man: “The scientific opinion is that conservation of wildland forests and wild organisms is in the primary interest of human survival. The impetus of recreation and tourism corroborates this opinion; people in a civilized society need “wilderness,” not for consumptive utilization but rather for a “re-creative” ethical reflection of their place in nature. Moreover, in more general terms, the rainforest ecosystem supports the people’s development as “capital in a bank” by the continuous provision of ecological “interest.” Sustainable welfare thus implies that people must protect this natural capital, against individuals who want to degrade it through consumptive use.” |
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Critics may say that extinction is nothing new, just look at the dinosaurs. Over the previous six hundred million years, extinctions have taken place at a rate of about one species every year. But now? Biologists can only make educated guess and they are chilling. One estimate , just for the world’s rainforests is 27,000 species extinguished every year. Or 74 species every day, 3 every hour. And we don’t even know the value of what we may be losing.
For more information, please see the following:
Edward O. Wilson once said, “The worst thing that can happen-will happen-is not energy depletion, economic collapse, limited nuclear war, or conquest by a totalitarian government. As terrible as these catastrophes would be for us, they can be repaired within a few generations. The process ongoing in the 1980’s that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us.” |
