Tropical Rainforests are the primal systems that are home to at least 50 percent of living species be it flora or fauna existing in the land. To define a rainforest, a tropical or temperate biome that experiences high levels of rainfall – usually between 80 to 400 inches of rainfall annually. The rainforests are found near the equator, where the temperatures are warmer, while temperate rainforests are found in cooler coastal areas near the north or south of the equator.
The top five rainforests are the Amazon rainforest located in the Amazon River Basin in South America, the Congo tropical rainforest, Australasia, Sundaland and the Indo-Myanmar or Indo-Burma Rainforest located in the Indian Subcontinent.
Top 7 fascinating facts about the tropical rainforest
- Rainforests provide habitats for many plants and animals
Rainforests cover only 6 percent of the Earth’s surface but are home to half of the flora and fauna species found in the globe, most of them unknown to humans.
- Rainforests provide us with fresh air
The Amazon rainforest can be considered as the Globe’s air conditioner but it has been in bad condition as half of it has been almost depleted by human encroachment of the forest area leading to more global temperature rise. The forests provide 20% of oxygen produced on the land by the photosynthesis process.
- Many people depend on the rainforest for survival
Almost 1.2 billion people depend on the rainforests for survival and livelihood. The food security, construction businesses, drinking water and energy sources depend on rainforests.
- Rainforest help fight Climate Change
Acting as major carbon sinks, meaning absorbing carbon (CO2) emitted by cars and human lifestyle, rainforests help fight climate change by lowering global temperature.
- Medicines are made from extracts found in rainforests
Many of the world’s critical medicines / life saving drugs are made from plant extracts found only in the rainforests. For example quinine extract is taken from plants found in the rainforests and is used in treating malaria. Drugs used to treat cancer use extracts such as snake poison found in snakes living in rainforests.
- Most houseplants come from rainforests
Many houseplants originated in the rainforests and have adapted to the low sunlight and little water making them the perfect companion for indoor spaces.
- Rainforest coverage is declining at astonishing rates
Deforestation is a major threat to the rainforests all around the earth. 17 percent of the Amazon rainforests have already been destroyed by humans since the 1970s. Every 6 seconds, an area equivalent to one professional football field is being cleared for commercial usage and making way for civilization to set in more aggressively resulting in more depletion of forest cover.
