TEST WHY FUNDING SMALL RAINFOREST
PRESERVATION PROJECTS IS IMPORTANT

According to Mr. Mario Boza, a national park expert in Costa Rica, "This project of the Costa Rica River is not a little property lost in a remote area surrounded by pastures, about to lose its biodiversity, it is a very important piece within a link of the chain known as the meso-American biological corridor.  This project is a basic element towards the conservation of this country’s biodiversity, which is unique to the world."

       Some Facts On The Rainforests
       Source: Deforestation Rates in Tropical Forests

Over 50% of original rainforest acreage has been cut down. Six species of the earth’s biological gene pool are lost to extinction every hour as a result. Fifty million acres are being cut down each year, the size of England, Scotland and Wales combined. Almost two and one half acres are being cut down each second, the size of two football fields. Twenty-five percent of medicines owe their existence to plants from the rainforest while seventy-percent of plants useful in cancer treatment are found only in these ecosystems. It should also be noted that ninety-nine percent of rainforest plants have not yet been thoroughly examined for their medicinal properties.  Burning forests has become the second largest factor contributing to the greenhouse effect.  And, 55 square feet of rainforest is destroyed for each quarter pound of fast food hamburger served and 400 million quarter pound hamburgers are made from beef raised on deforested rainforest lands each year. 

All of this destruction is coming in spite of the fact that the projected economic value of 2.4 acres of rainforest per year, if sustainably harvested for fruits, plants, latex and timber is $6,820. However, if the same amount of forest is clear-cut for commercial timber the value drops to $1,000, and, if the forest is clear-cut and used as cattle pasture, is worth only $148.  Clearly, in addition to their intrinsic value, there are excellent immediate and future economic benefits to preserving virgin rainforests.

Continue Page 2