How to

  How Can You Help Save the Rainforests?

~ Once you have a cause and you’re educated, you can change the world. ~

·      Become educated on what organization/companies participate in deforestation, and then contact them with your fears and concerns. Also getting a large group to boycott products made by these companies will show them that if they do not stop their part in deforestation people will not by their products. It is not the small-scale unsustainable use by local people that is causing the majority of damage, but rather the large-scale plundering of resources by multinational companies such as Mitsubishi and Texaco, as well as misguided aid projects. As consumers, we are directly linked to this chain of destruction. As consumers we have the ability to demand more responsibility and foresight on behalf of the corporations exploiting the earth's resources.

·     Get the word of deforestation out to government and the public, to the people local to the Amazon. They need to know that they will make much more money by not deforesting and actually using the copious amounts of natural resources of the rain forest. Governments need money to service their debts, squatters and settlers need money to feed their families, and companies need to make profits. The simple fact is that the rainforest is being destroyed for the income and profits it yields, however fleeting. Money still makes the world go around . . . even in South America and even in the rainforest. But this also means that if landowners, governments, and those living in the rainforest today were given a viable economic reason not to destroy the rainforest, it could and would be saved.

·      Once you have the attention of the local people and government give them the facts that will make them want to end deforestation, like facts about how much money they can make. The latest statistics prove that rainforest land converted to cattle operations yields the landowner $60 per acre; if timber is harvested, the land is worth $400 per acre. However, if medicinal plants, fruits, nuts, rubber, chocolate, and other renewable and sustainable resources are harvested, the land will yield the landowner $2,400 per acre. This value provides an income not only today, but year after year - for generations. These sustainable resources - not the trees - are the true wealth of the rainforest

·         Once you are educated on the problem of the rainforests spread the word to not only areas local to the Amazon, but to your own local communities; friends and local government officials. Learn more about forests through books, magazines, videos, and the Internet. Tell your friends about your deforestation concerns and let them know how they can get involved. Write an article or opinion piece for your local newspaper. Write or visit your elected officials to tell them you are concerned about deforestation.

·        Not only do you need to get the facts out about money but also about all the medical and pharmaceutical benefits the rainforest hold. These are more important the then facts about money because these could be the difference between life or death, a cure or no cure, The U.S. National Cancer Institute has identified 3000 plants that are active against cancer cells. 70% of these plants are found in the rainforest. Twenty-five percent of the active ingredients in today's cancer-fighting drugs come from organisms found only in the rainforest. Not only does the rain forest benefit cancer research and drugs but all medical research and drugs in general. Currently, 121 prescription drugs currently sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. And while 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients, less than 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists.

·        Learning what products to buy and not buy will help end deforestation.  Products made using sustainable rainforest products will boost the Amazons local economy and help put an end the cutting down or trees. Sufficient demand of sustainable and ecologically harvested rainforest products is necessary for preservation efforts to succeed. Purchasing sustainable rainforest products can effect positive change by creating a market for these products while supporting the native people's economy and provides the economic solution and alternative to cutting the forest just for the value of its timber.

·        Once you learn about what products to buy and not buy then there needs to be a demand for those sustainable rainforest products. Each and every person in the United States can take a part in this solution by helping to create this consumer market and demand for sustainable rainforest products. By purchasing renewable and sustainable rainforest products and resources and demanding sustainable harvesting of these resources using local communities and indigenous tribes of the rainforests, we all can be part of the solution, and the rainforests of the world and their people can be saved.

·         As hard as this one might be, decreasing your consumption of beef can help reduce deforestation. U.S. fast food restaurants and processed beef products often use beef from cows raised in Central and South America on land cleared of rainforests to graze cattle. Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil has been particularly severe, where many millions of hectares have been converted to pasture. Between 1990 and 2000 the region lost an area of forest twice the size of Portugal. Decreasing your consumption of beef will help reduce pressure to clear more forests for cattle.

·        Realizing that we as consumers have to take some of the blame for deforestation is a major step towards helping end deforestation. Of course we are not single handedly causing deforestation but are actions are affecting it. Consider what we industrialized Americans have done to our own homeland. We converted 90 percent of North America's virgin forests into firewood, shingles, furniture, railroad ties, and paper. Other industrialized countries have done no better. Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil, and other tropical countries with rainforests are often branded as "environmental villains" of the world, mainly because of their reported levels of destruction of their rainforests. But despite the levels of deforestation, up to 60 percent of their territory is still covered by natural tropical forests. In fact, today, much of the pressures on their remaining rainforests comes from servicing the needs and markets for wood products in industrialized countries that have already depleted their own natural resources. Industrial countries would not be buying rainforest hardwoods and timber had we not cut down our own trees long ago, nor would poachers in the Amazon jungle be slaughtering jaguar, ocelot, caiman, and otter if we did not provide lucrative markets for their skins in Berlin, Paris, and Tokyo.