| Rainforests home to 70% of life on earth |
| Written by UN Food and Agriculture Organisation | |
| Monday, 04 June 2007 | |
 Great hornbill at Wildlife Friends for Thailand rescue centre, Phetchaburi Thailand. © 2007 Adam Oswell Rainforests cover less than two percent of the Earth's surface yet they are home to some 50 to 70 percent of all life forms on our planet. The impact of "defaunation" on tropical forest ecology is significant, affecting seed dispersal and predation, which, in turn, alter the species balance and dynamics of the forest.  © 2007 Jonathan Tan Humans have long hunted wild game from forests, but over the past 50 years commercialization of killing has triggered a rapid increase in wildlife depletion. Forest destruction is responsible for 2-5 percent per decade of global biodiversity losses. It is estimated that up to 137 species disappear worldwide per day, due to tropical deforestation.  Proboscis monkeys above (known in Indonesia as "bekantan") are remarkable animals found only on the island of Borneo. The species is highly endangered - probably more so than the better known orangutan. The Indonesian part of Borneo is known as Kalimantan In 1998 Borneo was severely impacted by forest fires resulting from uncontrolled logging, clearing of land for conversion to oil palm and rice plantations and burning by small farmers. Many wild animals died in the disaster. The list of the world's endangered species will certainly grow longer when the damage from the fires is fully assessed. Proboscis Monkeys Project Image © 2007 Jonathan Tan |