No One Doubts that the world environment is under severe stress from pollution, diminishing resources, destruction of habitat, and the extinction of species. Climate change threatens to accelerate and amplify these problems knowing what to do is complicated by the interconnection of thousands of factors and millions of species.
How do we secure our future? Where do we begin?
One answer is forests.
Protecting forests is the fastest and one of the most cost-effective ways we have of addressing the climate crisis. The burning and clearing of tropical forests contributes more of the carbon emissions driving climate change than all the world's cars, trucks, planes, trains and ships combined. Halting their destruction is crucial to meeting the challenge of climate change.
And forests do so much more than sequester carbon and moderate temperature. They provide shelter and life for countless species and livelihoods for millions. They regular water tables and atmospheric moisture. Forests are the living, breathing guardians of the planet and their healthy profoundly affects us all.
Conservation international, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the International League of Conservation Photographers are proud to present this collection of extraordinary images, taken by some the world's finest photographers, as testament to the treasures that surround us, the dangers of inaction, and the pivotal role of forests and healthy ecosystems in supporting the well-being of humanity.
Who Speaks for Forests?
These photographs, taken by members of the International League of Conservation Photographers, remind us of the beauty and majesty of nature, as well as the consequences of forest destruction. Without that help, many of the remaining forests will eventually vanish.
Conservation International and the US Fish and Wildlife Service urge you to get involved. Speak for the forests. Visit them at www.conservation.org and www.fws.gov to learn more and see what you can do to help.
Human Element: Humans and Forests are increasingly dependent upon one another for survival.
Population growth creates pressure to clear forests for new homes and arable land. Refugees from wars and droughts strip forests as they gather fuel for cooking and warmth. Wood is harvested in unsustainable ways for lumber and paper. Industrial agriculture claims massive expanses for foods and biofuels.
The lost of forest lands affects more than just the trees are cut down. Erosion and drought often follow, robbing us of soil, releasing CO2 in abundance, and curtailing the production of oxygen. Surrounding temperatures fluctuate dramatically, affecting all nearby life. And without their natural habitat, species disappear.
Increasingly, people are coming to the aid of forests, conserving lands, replanting trees, and adopting sustainable logging. But the irony is that while we need forests for our survival, the forests would get along just fine without us.
Regions and Species:
We Think of Forests as defined spaces whose influence is felt and whose loss is experiences only locally. The truth is clearly otherwise.
Forests affect far more than simply the land upon which they stand, and the destruction of forests has a rippling effect that spreads out around the world.
Many species of plants and animals are unique not just to a forest habitat, but to a forest habitat in a specific location. Clearing forests reduces biodiversity, lowering the odds that remaining species will survive, and robbing us of unique compounds that might have been developed into life-giving medicines.
The human effect is no less dramatic. Violence often accompanies widespread forest clearing and people who previously depended on forests for their sustenance and livelihoods often descend into poverty, forced to migrate far from their former homes.
Climate:
Forests don't exist within climates; they are climates.
Fifty percent of the rain that falls in a rainforest comes from the forest itself through evaporation and expiration. Reforestation, while laudable, never achieves the level of biodiversity, from the soil to the canopy, which existed within the original forest. And the intricate balance of all life within a forest is as complex -- and certainly as fragile -- as that in a coral reef or a high desert plateau.
Mangroves and peat forests, increasingly rare and fast disappearing, actually store more carbon below ground than in the trees above.
The loss of a forest, however, is far more than a local event. The CO2 released in clearing a Malaysian forest helps raise the atmospheric temperature worldwide, melting the glaciers in Patagonia and raising the sea level in Miami.
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