RAIN FORESTS

WHY ARE RAIN FORESTS IMPORTANT?                 Flying over the heart of the Amazon is like flying over an ocean of green: an expanse of trees broken only by rivers. Even more amazing than their size is the role the Amazon and other rainforests around the world play in our everyday lives. While rainforests may seem like a distant concern, these ecosystems are critically important for our well-being. Rainforests are often called the lungs of the planet for their role in absorbing carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, and producing oxygen, upon which all animals depend for survival. Rainforests also stabilize climate, house incredible amounts of plants and wildlife, and produce nourishing rainfall all around the planet. Some of the most important trees in the world live in rainforests. Even though the nearest  rainforest  may be a long ways away from you, you still benefit from rainforests every day. Tropical  rainforests feature a wide variety of tall trees,  divers

WAYS TO HELP THE RAIN FOREST Today tropical rainforests are disappearing from the face of the globe. Despite growing international concern, rainforests continue to be destroyed at a pace  exceeding 80,000 acres  (32,000 hectares) per day. Tropical cover now stands at 2 billion hectares (7.7 million sq miles), an area about the size of the United States plus China and representing around 13 percent of the world's land surface. Much of this remaining area has been impacted by human activities and no longer retains its full original biodiversity. Five Basic Steps to Saving Rainforests "TREES" is a concept originally devised for an elementary school audience but serves well as set of principles for saving rainforests and, on a broader scale, ecosystems around the world. Teach  others about the importance of the environment and how they can help save rainforests. Restore  damaged ecosystems by planting trees on land where forests have been cut down. Encourage  people

PROTECT RAIN FORESTS                  We proudly present AMAZONICA's very first travel brochure! This is the next big step in our decade-long history. Finally, the AMAZONICA Academy is open to all visitors and able to offer our indigenous partners a stage for presenting themselves as professional hosts with their own tourism enterprises. Our charitable organizations, INDIO-HILFE, the AMAZONICA Foundation, and the AMAZONICA Academy have jointly reached an important milestone. In 1999, leaders of the Shuar and Achuar ethnic groups in the Amazon Basin of Ecuador told us: "We want our young people to have a healthy future on our own territory. Education, income, conservation of nature, and cultural retention are important to us. For this, we need allies." That has been AMAZONICA's task and this vision has been shared with the Shuar and Achuar. For 15 years, we developed and tested "the model for modern living and working in the fore

DIFFERENT ANIMALS OF RAIN FORESTS THERE ARE OVER 1 MILLION SPECIES F ANIMALS IN THE RAIN FORESTS. Rainforests are tremendously rich in animal life. Rainforests are populated with insects (like  butterflies  and beetles), arachnids (like spiders and ticks),  worms , reptiles (like snakes and lizards), amphibians (like  frogs  and toads),  birds  (like parrots and  toucans ) and  mammals  (like  sloths  and jaguars).  Different animals live in different  strata  of the rainforest. For example, birds live in the canopy (upper leaves of the trees) and in the emergents (the tops of the tallest trees). Large animals (like jaguars) generally live on the forest floor, but others (like  howler monkeys  and  sloths ) are arboreal (living in trees). Insects are found almost everywhere.  Many species of rainforest animals are endangered and many other have gone extinct as the number of acres of rainforests on Earth decreases.  Protection from Predators Animals are always in d