Rainforest destruction

The rainforest is home to the greatest biodiversity on earth


The rainforest. The evergreen tropical paradise of our planet is a miracle when we look at the animal and plant species that have lived there for centuries and that make this ecosystem so incredible. An area of the earth that is largely untouched by humans and that is the only reason why it functions so well.
Unfortunately, humans are destroying ever larger parts of this unique habitat.
In the meantime, however, the rainforests only cover 3 to a maximum of 4% of the earth's surface. 30 years ago it was 7%.

Humans are clearing more and more areas of the rainforest to obtain wood or to create monocultures. Monoculture means that a lot of one type of plant is grown, mostly because it grows particularly quickly, and you can make very high and quick profits as a result. One of these monocultures are oil palms. The palm oil obtained from it is now used in numerous products that we use every day. A lot of space is also created for paper production. Fast-growing trees such as eucalyptus and acacia are planted in order to quickly have new wood for production.
The price that has to be paid for it is indescribably high. Experts estimate that the clearing of the rainforest extinguishes around 100 animal and plant species every day . Sounds dramatic ?!

It is. Not just for the animals and plants. For us too. The constant loss of rainforests is changing our climate drastically. The rainforest stores a lot of CO2 through trees and peat bogs, which is released by clearing. The deserts can also spread further due to the disturbed water cycle. And as if that weren't enough, much of the soil on which the rainforest is cleared becomes sterile.

A few facts about clearing:

Around 350 million square meters of rainforest are cut down every day, most of which is in the tropics. That is the area of Greece - within a year.
Often the clearing areas are then set on fire to destroy remains.
Approx. 17 million km² have been cleared in the last 70 years. So 11% of the total area of the earth.


Making money out of wood - at an unaffordable priceNew text

A good half of all animal species live in the rainforests

You will know some of the wonderful animal species from the rainforests, some you will love and find funny. There we have elephants, some tigers, orangutans and other types of monkeys. But the majority actually consists of insects, caterpillars, ants and beetles, some of them live in thousands on one tree, their whole life, and only feed on this single tree. So if this is cleared, for example, a whole species simply dies out and with it part of the dreamy and unique beauty of our planet. Features like flying snakes, frogs that live in tree tops, and spiders that birds have for their food source.
All of these animals are gradually losing their habitat. Through us humans. But we can do something about it. We can avoid products that are only produced by clearing and switch to replacements. We can consciously protect parts of the rainforest through organizations or other associations. We can also protect the individual animal species and absorb what threats have arisen through us humans by helping them. There are also great projects here where you can all be active!

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