People and the RainforestTropical rainforests are important because they provide oxygen, take in carbon dioxide, and are a huge source of biodiversity and cultural diversity. However, people also rely on tropical rainforests for food, medicine, timber, travel, and more. Rainforests around the world provide people with food and spices, for example, allspice, vanilla, cacao, cassava, ginger, bananas, black pepper, sugar cane, nutmeg and more. Many people are also moving from crowded cities where they cannot find jobs into the rainforest where they are becoming small-scale farmers. With all of this use, we need to be concerned about the stress we are putting on rainforests. Thirty acres of trees are cut in tropical rainforests every minute! Some scientists estimate that rainforests the size of Pennsylvania are lost each year. There are many causes of deforestation.
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Discuss with your group:
- In a rainforest, little light reaches the forest floor. How do the plants get enough sun?
- How might you collect water in the rainforest?
Plants and Animals
Information found on website: http://kids.nceas.ucsb.edu/biomes/rainforest.html