Why Rainforests? - Rainforest Partnership

Protecting tropical rainforests

Why protect rainforests?• Home to 30 million people

• Carbon Sinks

– Absorb carbon from atmosphere

• Regulate Water cycle

• Lungs of the earth

– Circulates 40% of theworld’s oxygen

• Biodiversity

– More than 50% percent of terrestrial biodiversity

• Nature’s Pharmacy

– Source of 70% ofanti-cancer drugs

Where they are

One hundred years ago tropical rainforests covered 14% of land mass.

Today it is less than 6%.

Almost 20% of all carbon emissions are caused due to the burning and cutting of rainforests, annually, globally.

That’s more than from all cars, trucks, trains and planes combined.

What‘s at Stake

How much rainforest are we losing?

93,000 sq miles of area was deforested between 2000 and 2010.That’s as big as:

- United Kingdom

- Third of Texas

Why are we losing them?

• Limited income options• Small scale: pasture, subsistence farming• Larger scale:

– Logging, oil and mineral extraction– Cattle ranching– Soybean, corn, palm oil production

Protecting forests, an economic issue for Texas?

“Clearing forests may enrich those who are doing it, but over the long run it impoverishes the planet as a whole. Rainforests are an important prop to continental water-cycles. Losing the Amazon rainforest could reduce rainfall across the Americas, with potentially dire consequences for farmers as far away as Texas.”

The Economist, Sept 23, 2010 print edition

What Rainforest Partnership does

We work with forest communities to help them make an income that allows them to protect their forests.

The RP modelPartner with

communities.

Engage and Educate US Consumers

A different approach:

Locally Hired

Project Manager

Native Local Community

Resources

Education

Sustainable

Businesses for a

Sustainable

Future

Long term sustainability of alternative income generation and forest protection