Provide a habitat for plants and animals: There are over 30 million species of plants and animlas living in rainforests across the world. That’s over half of the Earth’s wildlife and plant species. There are many more thousands of rainforest plants and animals species still waiting to be discovered.

 

Regulate our climate: Rainforests are often called the lungs of the planet for their role in cleansing our atmosphere by absorbing carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, and then producing oxygen. Rainforests also stabilise climate, house incredible amounts of plants and wildlife, and produce nourishing rainfall all around the planet. Rainforests store water like a huge sponge, drawing water through trees and releasing it back into the enviroment. Without rainforests continually recycling huge quantities of water, feeding the rivers, lakes and irrigation systems, droughts would become more common, potentially leading to widespread famine and disease. 

 

Definition: Regulate- to control, maintain or manage the rate of something so that it works properly.

 

Provide a home for Indigenous people:

Many indigenous people have been living in harmony with the rainforest for thousands of years, depending on it for their food, shelter and medicines. When oil and logging companies come to remove vast areas of forest, they bring diseases which the indigenous people have no resistance to, threatening their survival. Often they are also forced to move away from their homes to unfamiliar places, sometimes even being killed in the process.

 

Are hidden pharmacies:

It may surprise you to know that more than 25% of our modern medicines originate from tropical forest plants. Many of these can be made into cancer fighting medicines, used to cure high blood pressure and mental illness. Rainforests and the native populations who discovered these medicines could hold the cure to many more diseases.

 

Provide us with many products we use in day to day life:

Many foods we consume today such as nuts, bananas, coffee and spices, and industrial products such as rubber, resins and fibres, were originally found in tropical rainforests.