State of the Rainforest 2014

What do we get from the rainforest?

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. 34 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. 35 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. 36 In developing countries, wood-based fuels are the dominant source of energy for more than two billion poor people. 37 Medicines and human health Some 20–50% of turnover in the pharmaceutical sector today (USD 650 billion annually) derives from genetic resources. 38 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. 39 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

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. 30 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. 31 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. 32 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

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STATE OF THE RAINFOREST 2014

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