On Earth today there are only seven large, contiguous forests. The largest is the Amazonian tropical rainforest, the Central Africa rainforest, the rainforest in the Andes, the Siberian forests, the last European forests, the North American forests and the Southeast Asian jungle . The fastest disappearing forests in the Amazon and some overcrowded islands of Indonesia. Their decline leads to the reduction of biodiversity (extinction of species). Another probable consequence is contributing to climate change and increasing carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere. It is estimated that if there is no consistent change, tropical rainforests will completely disappear by the middle of the 21st century . This is reported by the Greenpeace environmental organization, which has published an overview of the world's last existing forests.
The Amazon tropical rainforest is about 5,500,000 sq. Km. It is located in nine states of South America - Brazil (over 60%), Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. The entire Amazon forest represents more than half of tropical rainforests around the world. There are more than 100,000 species of mammals, reptiles, birds and other 270,000 species of insects in the Amazon. Between 1970 and 2000, a total of 16.4% of the total area of the forest was cut, resulting in an annual loss of 20,200 km2. Cutting is destroying the sanctuary of many animals, such as the Jaguar, wild cats living in the forests of South and Central America.
The rainforests of Central Africa , where a myriad of animal and plant species live, represent the second largest tropical rainforest in the world after the Amazon. They stretch from Cameroon and the Central African Republic via Congo and Equatorial Guinea to Gabon. Bad is the Congolese rainforest with an area of over 1,700,000 square kilometers, which is one of the planet's most valuable ecosystems. There are 39 endemic species, ie biological species not found anywhere else in the world. Only the Democratic Republic of Congo forest hosts about a thousand species of birds and four hundred species of mammals. Among its most well-known inhabitants are elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees, eagles, leopards and hippos. Africa has lost two-thirds of its original forests in the last thirty years.
Rainforests are rare in the temperate zone. South America has only forests in the Chilean mountains of the Andes. The bulk is already deforested or damaged, and the last residue still threatens the wood industry. There is a very rare deer huemul in remote and constantly shrinking forests. Today it lives only on a fraction of its original territory high in the mountains.
The Russian Siberian Forests are the largest contiguous forest area on earth, having about twice the size of the Amazon Rainforest. Russia is a quarter of the world's total timber reserves. Every year, 20,000 km2 of forest are destroyed. There are many rare species of plants and animals, such as bears, wolves, reindeer, losers, Amur leopards, foxes and Siberian squirrels. There is also the Siberian tiger, the largest living kind of tiger in the world. Today, the last 200 to 300 species survive in the wild.
The last European forests lie in the northernmost part of Europe. Once richly wooded, Sweden and Finland today account for only three percent of the remaining European forests. Virginia forests are still covered by large areas of western Russia. Bears can be found in a few areas of northern Scandinavia, in the south and southeast of Europe and in the European part of Russia. These mines also do not avoid mining. The forests ensure the survival of a large number of plant and animal species, including bear, fly-flying and highly threatened breeding. There are also tens of thousands of indigenous people.
The North American Forests are located in the south of the West Coast of Canada in British Columbia. It is one of the last rainforest of the temperate zone. It is estimated that two-thirds of the 140,000 species of plants, animals and micro-organisms are bound to the forest as a living space. These include, for example, a grizzly bear, a puma or a wolf. The population of wolves is estimated to be barely 63,000 animals in North America today. The cause is the decline of large contiguous forest areas. Timber companies across the North American continent have destroyed at least 123,000 km2 of forests from 1990 to 2000.
Only 20% of the world's forests are preserved in large, intact areas. Among the most endangered are those that stretch from Southeast Asia across Indonesia to Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The forests of Southeast Asia are often referred to as "Paradise Forests." The Indonesian archipelago consists of 17,500 islands. It is home to about 12% of all known mammals, 16% of reptiles and amphibians, 17% of birds and 25% of fish. The local rainforests have an area of around 10 million km2. There are also endemic plant and animal species that are nowhere else on Earth. For example, a Sumatra tiger or a flower-covered raffle. The Indonesian Forest is, among other things, the refuge of the last wild Orangutans. Rainforest in Southeast Asian Islands, especially in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, is one of the oldest forests in the world. More than 70% of the area's former rainforests have been cut off and their destruction has accelerated in recent years.
Author: Blanka Štiková
Source: Ekolist.cz
