STATE OF THE RAINFOREST 2014
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A gigantic sponge, a chemical factory or pharmacy, a supermarket,
the lungs of the world, or our biological treasure-chest – the
rainforest has been given many different names to describe its
importance to humans and the global environment. Most of the
services rainforests provide are given free of charge and are difficult
to measure in monetary terms, although estimates of the value of
services from rainforest ecosystems reach billions of dollars.
The people of the rainforest often describe the forest as a
‘supermarket’ that provides the wide range of foods, medicines
and materials needed for life in the forest. The rainforests are of
paramount importance for the several hundred millions of people
living in or near them, including 60 million indigenous peoples
who are wholly dependent on the forests for their material, cultural
and spiritual well-being.
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But the tropical forests of the world
also provide ecosystem services of immense value regionally
and globally: these include water and climate regulation, water
purification, pollination and carbon storage. The rainforests
of the Amazon, for instance, sequester carbon from the global
atmosphere, regulate the water balance and flow of the entire
Amazon river system, influence the patterns of climate and air
chemistry with impacts beyond the continent.
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The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment divides forest ecosystem
services into four categories:
Provisioning services
, such as wild
foods, crops, fresh water and plant-derived medicines;
Regulating
services
, filtration of pollutants by wetlands, climate regulation
through carbon storage and water cycling, pollination and
protection from disasters;
Cultural services
, like recreation, spiritual
and aesthetic values, education; and
Supporting services
such as
soil formation, photosynthesis and nutrient cycling.
Regulating services constitute a large part – two-thirds according to
several studies – of the value of the tropical forest, and direct values
like food, timber-based and other materials, represent a relatively
smaller share. The comprehensive TEEB study (The Economics of
Ecosystems and Biodiversity) shows how the benefits of protecting
forests outweigh the costs. Maintaining this natural capital is
important for the sustained provision of future flows of ecosystem
services and to ensure long-term human well-being.
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Water and climate regulation:
Rainforests are ‘sponges’ of global importance, essential for
regulating water and rainfall in large parts of the world. Forests
improve the quality of water by filtering it, and regulate the flow by
storing water in the ground for gradual release. According to the
FAO, some two-thirds of the water usable for humans flows through
forested watersheds. The forest’s water regulation reduces the risks
of extreme flooding events or river dry-up during the dry season. This
has important implications for food security, enabling downstream
farmers to pursue agricultural production with less risk. According
to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the provision of drinking
water is directly linked to the protection of ecosystems. More than
two billion people today have an inadequate supply of drinking
water – and their numbers could double in the next few decades.
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Tropical forests serve as giant carbon storages. Healthy forests
can help to buffer the impacts of extreme weather events, whose
frequency and severity are expected to rise with continued
global warming.
Food and fuel
Trees, in forests and on farmland, support bees and other pollinating
insects, which in turn ensure the production of food grains and
seeds for planting in future years. Forests play a crucial role as gene-
pool reserves – including a large proportion of the agricultural crops
cultivated around the world.
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Crop genetic resources are the safety
net vital for coping with pests and diseases, and for adapting future
agriculture to a changing climate.
Many of the foods consumed worldwide originate from the
rainforest. For instance, the fruits and palm hearts of acai palm
have been used as food for at least 1000 years. Growing in low-lying
areas of the Amazon estuary, this palm still has great economic
importance. Other food species from the tropical forests of South
America include avocados, Brazil nuts, various chillis, papayas
and sweet potatoes. The oil palm originates from Africa; and from
the Australasian rainforests the world has bananas, sugar cane
and wide range of spices.
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In developing countries, wood-based
fuels are the dominant source of energy for more than two billion
poor people.
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Medicines and human health
Some 20–50% of turnover in the pharmaceutical sector today
(USD 650 billion annually) derives from genetic resources.
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In Africa,
80% of the population rely mainly on traditional medicines (plants
and animals) for dealing with their health-care needs, according
to the World Health Organization. One billion people worldwide
depend on drugs derived from forests. Of the 52,000 medicinal
plants used today, about 8% are threatened with extinction,
according to the global TEEB study.
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Human impacts on the environment have been associated with
outbreaks of malaria, dengue, SARS, Ebola and other diseases.
Intuitively, we might assume that species-rich environments
would also foster an abundance of pathogens, and be a source
What do we get from the rainforest?
