
Building blocks for tropical rainforest conservation include
ecotourism
Ecotourism is a form of nature-oriented tourism intended to contribute to the Ecological conservation, conservation of the natural environment, generally defined as being minimally impactful, and including providing both contributions to conserv ...
and
rehabilitation.
Reforestation and
restoration are common practices in certain areas to try to increase
tropical rainforest
Tropical rainforests are dense and warm rainforests with high rainfall typically found between 10° north and south of the Equator. They are a subset of the tropical forest biome that occurs roughly within the 28° latitudes (in the torrid zo ...
density. By communicating with the local people living in, and around, the rainforest, conservationists can learn more about what might allow them to best focus their efforts.
Rainforest
Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...
s are globally important to sustainability and preservation of
biodiversity
Biodiversity is the variability of life, life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and Phylogenetics, phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distribut ...
. Although they may vary in location and inhabited species of plants and animals, they remain important worldwide for their abundance of
natural resource
Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest, and cultural value. ...
s and for the
ecosystem services. It is important to take into consideration the differing species and the biodiversity that exists across different rainforest types in order to accurately implement methods of
conservation.
Ecotourism
Ecotourism
Ecotourism is a form of nature-oriented tourism intended to contribute to the Ecological conservation, conservation of the natural environment, generally defined as being minimally impactful, and including providing both contributions to conserv ...
is conducting tours of a specific area in efforts to teach the public about often threatened environments. It is a practice that represents one imperative solution to saving endangered habitat. Tourists and tour guides alike often make generous donations to conservation efforts in the regions they visit, greatly helping the preservation of the Amazon rainforest. Experts are continuously and commonly discussing with conservationists, policy-makers, and local politicians and leaders about ecotourism and its impacts on surrounding ecosystems. Ecotourism can contribute to the conservation and
sustainability
Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...
of biodiversity in rainforests. Many of the tropical field stations are visited by tourists and the general public, by students and volunteers and of 142 field stations surveyed received a total of ~11,055–18,950 visitors per year
Ecotourism has also shown to give way towards accessing an environmental economic growth. Studies have shown that ecotourism has given way towards conservation of ecological biodiversity.
Amazon rainforest
One of the world's largest and most dense rainforests is the
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...
rainforest in South America. Rainforests are disappearing across the world, and at an alarming rate in Brazil. Since the 1980s, more than 153,000 square miles of Amazonian rainforest has fallen victim to deforestation.
[Tollefson, J. (2013). A Light in the Forest. ''Foreign Affairs'', ''92''(2), 141-151.] Brazil has helped feed the growing global demand for food supply of soybeans and beef with the newly cleared land.
The Amazon easily makes up one of the world's biggest and most biodiverse ecological reserves, once lush, think, highly diverse basin, that has now been cleared in many areas for soy fields and cattle ranches. Recently, Brazil has worked to immensely slow the destruction of its rainforests, reducing the rate of deforestation by over 80%.
Deforestation has to some degree been slowed down by implementing stricter
land use
Land use is an umbrella term to describe what happens on a parcel of land. It concerns the benefits derived from using the land, and also the land management actions that humans carry out there. The following categories are used for land use: fo ...
regulations and creating
protected area
Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewood ...
s.
Greenhouse gas
Greenhouse gases (GHGs) are the gases in the atmosphere that raise the surface temperature of planets such as the Earth. Unlike other gases, greenhouse gases absorb the radiations that a planet emits, resulting in the greenhouse effect. T ...
emissions, which are largely due to the alarming rates of rainforest destruction, are one of the largest contributors to climate change in the Amazon region. The national government of Brazil aids better social and economic planning of specific areas with significant similarities with national policies.
[Ferreira, H. S., Serraglio, D. A., & Maganhati Mendes, R. L. (2016). National Policy on Climate Change and the Protection of the Amazon Forest. Environmental Policy & Law, 419-424.] In 2009 alone, Brazil acknowledged an issue and accepted the challenge presented to reduce its carbon emissions by 36–38 percent by 2020 in efforts to in turn reduce the amounts of gases being emitted into the air.
Carbon credits
Another way conservation has become the most economically beneficial option is through
carbon credits
Carbon offsetting is a carbon trading mechanism that enables entities to compensate for offset greenhouse gas emissions by investing in projects that reduce, avoid, or remove emissions elsewhere. When an entity invests in a carbon offsetting p ...
. Under the
Kyoto Protocol
The was an international treaty which extended the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the scientific consensus that global warming is oc ...
, countries must reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide by 5% below the 1990 levels before 2012. Countries can meet their mandatory cuts in emissions by offsetting some of those emissions some other way. Through conservation or reforestation of the rainforest, countries can receive credits.
Some worldwide companies have stated publicly that they refuse to purchase products that originate from recently cleared areas of the rainforest. Beef commonly comes from farms that are located on land previously inhabited by rainforests.
It is important to conserve the
rainforest
Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...
because many resources for things we use everyday come from the rainforest, including rubber for tires and spices such as cinnamon and many other common items. It is imperative to life on earth that the rainforest be conserved, as the trees take in carbon dioxide to provide oxygen. About a quarter of the world's greenhouse gas emissions come from
deforestation
Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...
and destruction of rainforests.
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See also
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Sustainability
Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...
*
Environmental economics
*
Global drying
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Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Description
TSMF is generally found in la ...
References
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Francis, F. J. (2022). Using a contingent valuation method to evaluate an ecotourism site in Borneo, Malaysia: a case of the Rainforest Discovery Centre, Malaysia. Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events, 17(1), 36–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/19407963.2022.2150770
Further reading
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{{Conservation biology
Tropical rainforests
Forest conservation