The rainforests host people and animals that cannot survive without it! People living in and near rainforests cover a great part of their daily need of food and other items from their forest. Wildlife, fish, fruits, cooking oils, honey, herbal medicines, mushrooms, nuts, fibers for carpets and textiles…..

The world's largest biological diversity on land is found in the rainforests. More than half of all animal and plant species can be found here, in spite of the fact that it only covers 6% of the total land surface.

We too need the rainforest! The incredible biological diversity constitutes an irreplaceable gene bank, with plants providing us with new medicines and a range of food items and spices. Pineapple, banana, mango, lemon, coffee, tea, cacao, pepper, chili, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, cloves are just a few of the fruits and spices that originally came from the rainforest.

The crops that we cultivate today are highly "refined", while their wild relatives have a greater genetic variation. The wild rainforest species act as our insurance in the case that our refined crops no longer can resist pests and other stress factors.

Many of "our" birds are migratory and move to the rainforests during winters. They could not survive if the rainforest disappeared.

The rainforests influence both the local and global climate. Locally, precipitation decreases, which in turn influences wind direction and finally ocean currents. This results in an increased instability of the global climate.

The destruction of tropical forests contributes to 30% of the carbon dioxide build-up in the global atmosphere. This corresponds to about 18-19 % of the greenhouse effect, according to tropical forest expert Norman Myers.

The loss of rainforest has already caused severe local problems, such as flooding or draught, soil erosion and water pollution, in turn causing great losses in for example food production. This occurs in areas that already had big financial difficulties and a very limited food supply