Species of the Rainforest (Species Endangered By a Diminishing Ecology)

Tropical rainforests are the most diverse ecosystems on earth. A four-square mile patch of rainforest contains as many as 1500 species of flowering plants, 750 species of trees, 125 species of mammals, 400 species of birds, 100 species of reptiles, 60 species of amphibians, and 150 species of butterflies. More than 50% of the world's plant and animal species inhabit the 7% of the world that is covered in rainforest.

Why is this so?

Researchers believe that there is such a great diversity of animals because rainforest ecosystems have been developing for hundreds of millions of years. Some forests in Southeast Asia have been around for more than 100 million years, when the dinosaurs roamed the Earth. During the Ice Ages, the last of which occurred about 10,000 years ago, the frozen areas of the North and South Poles spread over much of the earth, causing huge numbers of extinctions. But the catastrophe did not reach many of the tropical rainforests. Thus, these plants and animals could continue to evolve, developing into the most diverse and complex ecosystems on earth.

The high temperatures, rainfall and humidity which provide excellent conditions for life also help contribute to the great number of species. With temperatures at least 24 to 30 degrees celsius all year round, animals don't have to worry about freezing during cold winters or finding shade in the hot summers. Water is rarely a problem for them as precipitation is high throughtout the whole year.

While there are many species of plants in a square-mile of tropical rainforest, there may only be one or two of each. In addition as most of the species are found nowhere else on Earth, by removing one plant or animal, the fragile ecosystem would be threatened, and the species may be forced into extinction.

Other species consist of only a few dozen individuals. Living in limited areas, most of these species are , or found nowhere else on earth. The maues marmoset, a species of monkey, wasn't discovered until recently. Its entire tiny population lives within a few square miles in the Amazon rainforest. It is so small, it could sit in a person's hand!

While there are many species of plants in a square-mile of tropical rainforest, there may only be one or two of each. Removing one plant can severely damage the fragile ecosystem. Animals are dependent on plants for food and habitat. For example, some insects can only live on one type of plant. Destroying the plant can cause the insect to become extinct

Today, through the direct and indirect actions of man such as pollution, species of plants and animals are disappearing from the rainforests even before they can be cataloged and studied. The average rate of extinction in the rainforest is 140 per day and if this goes on, the animal and plant species in the rainforest would be wiped out even before we know it. That would be almost half of the total number of plant and animal species on Earth.

The Rainforest Could Disappear by 2080

If logging of the Amazon Rainforest doesn't stop, the forest could be destroyed in less than 75 years, Brazilian environmentalist Philip Martin Fernside told TASS. Because evaporation from the forest itself creates the conditions necessary to sustain a rain forest, the entire forest need not be logged for the system to collapse.

The 1.2 billion acre Amazon basin is located in five nations -- Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana -- with Brazil holding 60%. The forest accounts for about half the world's remaining intact rainforest. Deforestation has increased in recent decades, as the government and private interests have built roads into and through the forest, individuals and conglomerates have cleared land for ranching, and other interests eye the forest for short-term gain.

Brazil has recently celebrated its success at slowing the rate of deforestation, conservation groups have long been active in the region and the world's industrialized nations are increasingly interested in schemes that might protect the forest as a way to offset their carbon emissions. Like other large forests, the Amazon holds carbon that -- if trees are logged or burned -- would be released into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. (The Daily Green)

Conservation Biology

When the last individual of a race of living things breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again. William Beebe

The natural world is a far different place now than it was 10,000 years ago, or even 100 years ago. Every natural ecosystem on the planet has been altered by humanity, some to the point of collapse. Vast numbers of species have gone prematurely extinct, natural hydrologic and chemical cycles have been disrupted, billions of tons of topsoil have been lost, genetic diversity has eroded, and the very climate of the planet has been disrupted.

What is the cause of such vast environmental change? Very simple the cumulative effects of nearly 6.8 billion people in 2009, have stressed the many ecological support systems of the planet, possibly beyond their powers of resilence.

The last one hundred years have seen a rapid increase in population due to medical advances and massive increase in agricultural productivity[3] made possible by the Green Revolution. The actual annual growth in the number of humans fell from its peak of 87.8 million per annum in 1989, to a low of 74.6 million per annum in 2003, after which it has been rising again, to 76.6 million per annum in 2007, and 77.0 million per annum in 2009. The growth rate is expected to peak in 2010 at 77.2 million per annum, then decline steadily to about 43 million per annum in 2050, at which time the population will have increased to about 9.3 billion. (Wikipedia World Population)

As a consequence, biological diversity (biodiversity) the grand result of evolutionary processes and events tracing back several billion years, is itself at stake and rapidly declining. One of the many species suffering the consequences of ecological destruction is Homo Sapiens, the perpetrator of it all. Mostly the destruction of biodiversity today is due not so much to numbers of people pe se, but to where they live and what they consume. in developing countries the expansion of highly commercialised agriculture and forestry has displaced the rural poor into city slums or onto steep hillsides and other ecologically fragile areas. In the industrialised world, the wealthy consume a disproportinate share of he global resources. (Principles of Conservation Biology, Gary K. Meffe, C. Ronald Carroll and contributors)

Meadows (1990) hints at one way of monetizing natural sesrvices: "How would you like the job," she asks, "of pollinating trillions of apple blossoms some sunny afternoon in May? It's conceavable maybe that you could invent a machine to do it, but inconceivable that the machine could work as elegantly and cheaply as the honey bee, much less make honey on the side."

Some things have a price, others have dignity. And, as a familiar matter of fact, we have attempted to exclude certain things from the market that we believe have a dignity - things, in other words, to which we attribute intrinsic value. Indeed, one possible motive for claiming that biodiversity is intrinsicallly valuable is to exclude it from economic valuation, and thus to put it beyond the vagaries of the market. We have, for example attempted to take human beings off the market by outlawing slavery, and attempted to take sex off the market by outlawing prostitution. Why not take intrinsically valuable biodiversity off the market by outlawing environmentally destructive human activities? Indeed, the United States Endangered Species Act of 1973 is a splendid example of a political decision to take biodiversity off the market. The Endangered Species Act was amended in 1978 to create a high-level interagency committee, the so-called "God Squad," which could allwo a project thatput a listed species in jeopardy of extinction to go forward if its economic benefits were deemed sufficiently great. But politically and economically determined values often clash in the real world. (Holmes Tolston III, Colorado State University).

Being conscious implies the true value, the right thing, the beauty, the collective and nature which establishes our connection with our evolution. Rediscovering our roots with planet Earth through the experience of harmonising with nature can support us in living a life of meaning.