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There is, perhaps, no scene that conjures the word "primordial" more than that of a shadowy, steamy jungle. There are mysteries hidden everywhere, otherworldly screams, camouflaged predators, noxious plants, stinging bugs, mold, decay and boggy impassable ground. It is, in the minds of many, the very thing civilization was invented to fend off.
Most of that sentiment comes from lack of familiarity with jungles, which are also called tropical rain forests. To know a jungle, it turns out, is to love it. And there's the rub: Jungles are not easy to know. They are incredibly complex places, with most of their life in the leafy, limb-filled spaces above the ground. Humans did not evolve in a place like this, though native people have shown that humans can adapt to it and live well — if they learn the ways of the jungle.
Packed With Life
The jungles of the world are jam-packed with species, despite covering only a few percent of Earth's land area. They are the most diverse ecosystems on the planet. From New Guinea to Costa Rica to the Amazon and Africa, jungles can contain many hundreds of species of plants and animals in just an acre. But diversity isn't their only asset.
Jungles protect land from erosion, generate rainfall by cooling the air above them, protect soils, prevent floods and contribute to groundwater supplies. To people who live in them, jungles also provide fruit, nuts, medicines, meat and shelter materials in perpetuity that far exceeds the one-time profit made by cutting down all the trees and selling the lumber. This is a fact that's becoming better understood worldwide.
Despite the growing appreciation for rain forests, of the ten percent of the world's wooded lands that were cleared from 1970 to 1995, most were in the tropics. Between 1990 and 1995, trees came down in the greatest numbers in Latin America, with Africa and Asia right behind. The worst deforestation tends to happen in countries with both lots of trees and dense populations, like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Jamaica and the Philippines.
Besides demands for timber, fuel wood, charcoal and wood pulp, there is also a high demand for farmland in these countries. So the jungles are cleared.
