Rainforest Woes

The Ugandan government is attempting to give 17,500 acres of rainforest the axe. Literally. They intend to revoke the protected status of a portion of the Mabira Forest and give the land to a sugar cane company for clearing. Only about 15% of Uganda's land is still forested and approximately 2% of those forests are lost each year to clearing for farming and cattle. The forests mean life to the locals, providing firewood, charcoal, herbal medicine, edible fruits and timber. A recent study has shown that nine species of wildlife found only in the Mabira Forest, including a shrub used to treat malaria, would be in danger of extinction.

The rainforest is already disappearing at an alarming rate without government's actually offering up protected areas for deforestation. If only 15% of the entire country is forested, there shouldn't there be plenty of places that are already cleared and suitable for sugar cane?

The Disappearing Rainforest

The Amazon Rainforest is the most diverse ecosystem in the world covering nearly 60 percent of Brazil. It contains 1/5 of the world's fresh water and about 30 percent of the world's plant and animal species. In the last 40 years, 20 percent of this remarkable forest has been cut down and an estimated additional 20 percent will disappear in the next 2 decades.

The climate changes caused by global warming also threaten to destroy this vast ecosystem. Researchers have outlined a worst case scenario in which global warming will raise temperatures and reduce rainfall. As the rainforest is cut down, the system loses even more rainfall due to the loss of moisture released to the atmosphere. As temperatures rise and conditions become drier, the trees will dry out and die replacing the rainforest with a grassy savannah.

Between climate changes from global warming, slash and burn techniques for farming and illegal logging, the rainforest is in imminent danger of disappearing forever. This rich environment contains thousands of plants with unknown benefits to human health, provides 20% of the world's oxygen and reduces the world's carbon dioxide. Imagine what we lose if we lose the rainforest. Imagine what we could save by using EMI trees to replant what has been lost. Their accelerated growth would make it feasible to reforest and their increased ability to sequestor carbon would help reduce the amount of greenhouse gases released by logging.

National Geographic Photos by Alex Webb

Rainforest areas cleared and burned for farming and grazing (top).

Illegal logging in the Amazon (bottom).