Due to the major demand for tropical hardwood, millions of acres of rainforests are being razed to ground every year. The perpetrators of this crime against the Earth and the humanity are only concerned with short term profit. Hence they never take time to replant what they have destroyed. Some are slightly more considerate and grow tree plantations that are planted with only one type of tree over and over again. They are not real forests due to their lack of biodiversity. However, the Eco Preservation Society tells us about a systems for harnessing that demand in a way that benefits the rainforest and the communities within them. Ecological forestry in Papua New Guinea and Willie Smitt’s work in Samboja Lestari are a couple of illustrious examples. Another one, “Tree Avalanching, is a simple but powerful concept of leveraging the value of harvested trees to buy more land and plant more trees. Instead of pocketing the profits from the sale of SUSTAINABLY harvested hardwoods, we use the profits to buy more land, create more jobs, and plant more trees.” To read more about this reforestation technique and about various other eco-conservation projects undertaken, please visit the websites of the Eco Preservation Society and their Replanting the rainforest campaign.

There are also a few very informative and thoughtful articles contributed by various people on the RTR website that deal with various aspects of rainforests and their benefits to the planet. I’m simply giving the links here and highly recommend my readers to follow those links for more.

Reversing forest decline can combat climate change (Lester R.Brown from People and Planet)

Trees absorb a fifth of carbon emissions pumped out by humans (Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent from Telegraph.uk.co)

Sustaining Tropical Forests (from Earth Observatory/NASA)

Creating Disincentives for Tropical Deforestation: A Myth? (Baruani Mshale)

Think green, Live green! Keep the Earth green!