Save the Caribbean Rainforests

Rainforests are endangered

Tropical forests have a huge biological diversity and are important for the climate. Once the Caribbean islands were covered with tropical rainforest, but these have been diminished since the arrival of Columbus. Only a small part of the primary forest has been preserved, but is endangered. The most Caribbean islands have a lack of environmental lobbying and of specific land use plans. So the Caribbean forests are disappearing.

The Caribbean rainforests are the home of many endangered species. Due to the population growth, these rainforests shrink every year at an alarming rate.  Tropical rain forests are rapidly disappearing from our planet. Deforestaion occurs in these tropical forested lands, the lands are not irreversible and soils in these places are very poor which mean with in the few years after the destruction that all of the nutrients in the soils will disolve.

Only 1% of tropical plants have been examined for possible medicinal uses, but we get already  between 25 and 40% of all pharmaceutical products from the rain forests.

There are several predicted effects of global warming, which is exacerbated by logging of our rain forests:

• melting ice sheets will raise sea levels and flood communities that are currently above sea level
• diseases like malaria will increase worldwide
• and extreme weather events like hurricanes and blizzards will increase

Rainforests:

• maintain the water cycle;
• help stabilize the world’s climate;
• provide a home to many plants and animals;
• protect against flood, drought, and erosion;
• are a source for medicines and foods;
• are good for toursim business.

Causes of Rainforest Destruction

Immediate Causes:

• logging;
• fuelwood;
• agriculture-shifted cultivators;
• agricultures-cash crops & cattle ranching;
• mining and industry;
• colonisation schemes:
• large dams;
• tourism.

Underlying Causes:

• the debt burden:
• the role of poverty and overpopulation:
• development and overconsumtion:
• exploitation by industrialised countries.

Please help!
We from CARIBBEAN TRAVEL WORLD like to do our part to save the rainforests in the Caribbean. The best way is to buy land with remaining rainforest and make sure, that this rainforest will not be logged.

All we need is people who understand, how importand it is, to do something now. You can help with money. Sure, you have thousands of things to buy, but do you really have to spend all your money for luxery? Can't you spend once in your life a certain amount for a really good idea? 

You will be the owner of the land that we buy from your money. And in case you get in financial trouble one day, you can sell the land and get your money back (with the condition to conserve the forest of course).
 
Let us know that you like to help!

Remaining Caribbean Rain Forests Country/area Land area Forest area 2000 Natural forest Forest plantation Total forest 000 ha 000 ha 000 ha 000 ha % ha/ capita Antigua and Barbuda 44 9 9 20.5 0.1 Bahamas 1,001 842 - 842 84.1 2.8 Barbados 43 2 0 2 4.7 n.s. Bermuda 5 - - - - - British Virgin Islands 15 3 - 3 20.0 0.1 Cayman Islands 26 13 - 13 - 0.4 Cuba 10,982 1,867 482 2,348 21.4 0.2 Dominica 75 46 0 46 61.3 0.6 Dominican Republic 4,838 1,346 30 1,376 28.4 0.2 Grenada 34 5 0 5 14.7 0.1 Guadeloupe 169 78 4 82 48.5 0.2 Haiti 2,756 68 20 88 3.2 n.s. Jamaica 1,083 317 9 325 30.0 0.1 Martinique 107 45 2 47 43.9 0.1 Montserrat 11 3 - 3 27.3 0.3 Netherlands Antilles 80 1 - 1 n.s. n.s. Puerto Rico 887 225 4 229 25.8 0.1 Saint Kitts and Nevis 36 4 4 11.1 0.1 Saint Lucia 61 8 1 9 14.8 0.1 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 39 6 0 6 15.4 0.1 Trinidad and Tobago 513 244 15 259 50.5 0.2 United States Virgin Islands 34 14 - 14 41.2 0.1 Total Caribbean 22,839 5,145 566 5,711 25.0 0.2 Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

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All about Rainforests