About this site
Providing tropical forest news, statistics, photos, and information, rainforests.mongabay.com is the world's most popular rainforest site. [more]
"There
Are No Lemurs in America?"
Education provides local people with the information that the species around them are special. The poor who are
poaching animals from reserves and burning the forests often have no idea that the species around them are unique.
For example, in Madagascar many locals assume that the lemurs, chameleons, and tenrics that surround them are
found all over the world. They are surprised to learn that these species are found only in the patch of forest
behind their village and not in America, Europe, or even other parts of Madagascar. Once local people realize that
their species are unique, they often begin to take pride in their native fauna, and become more conscious in their
efforts to preserve it. Local people can value these species as another means to provide income when they see that
people are willing to travel great distances just to see these animals.
Continued: Saving rainforests
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
"Rainforest" is used interchangeably with "rain forest" on this site. Same for "rainforests" and "rain forests". "Jungle" is generally not used.
Recent news
Amazon deforestation rate falls to lowest on record (8/10/2007) Deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon for the previous year were the lowest on record, according to preliminary figures released by INPE, Brazil's National Institute of Space Research.
Lowland rainforest less diverse than previously thought (8/9/2007) While rainforests are the world's libraries of biodiversity, species richness may be more evenly distributed in some forests than in others, reports an extensive new study by an international team of entomologists and botanists. The work, published in the current issue of the journal Nature, has important implications for forest management and conservation strategies.
Experts: parks effectively protect rainforest in Peru (8/9/2007) High-resolution satellite monitoring of the Amazon rainforest in Peru shows that land-use and conservation policies have had a measurable impact on deforestation rates. The research is published in the August 9, 2007, on-line edition of Science Express.
