THE RAINFORESTS TODAY

By Rosemary Rudd.

WE MUST SAVE OUR RAIN FORESTS BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.

WILL YOU HELP?

I would like to say a few words about the Rain Forest – they are a safe haven (or used to be) for our countless wild animals and for the indigenous peoples of the Rain Forest – approximately 50 million of them. These people possess a vast knowledge of the forests they live in, but unfortunately so many of the surviving Rain Forest cultures face a grim future due to international development agencies who denude the countryside by logging – THIS MUST BE STOPPED.

The loss of the worlds Tropical Forests is one of the World’s greatest calamities ever to face human kind – rivers are being polluted, fish are dying – people are starving. What can we do about it?

Because of Tropical deforestation, at least one species is perishing every day. Rain forests are a vital source of medicines – 70% of all plants known to have anti-tumour remedies come from Tropical rain forests. I would like to quote one very important fact – in 1991 researchers found particular twigs on a Malaysian gum tree, they isolated a compound that blocked the spread of the AIDS virus in human cells. The team sent biologists racing back to Malaysia for more samples from the tree, but when they got to the swamp, the tree was gone, it had been cut down and no tree has been found since that has produced the same compound.