How can we help to save rainforests?

1) Reduce your paper and wood consumption.

Since most paper comes from trees, you can help reduce the pressure on our remaining forests by taking simple steps to reduce your own wood and paper use. For example, use both sides of each piece of paper, use your own cloth bags at the grocery store, use cloth napkins and towels, and avoid disposable paper plates and cups.

When purchasing paper products, choose products with the highest percentage of recycled content —post-consumer recycled content is the best. Choose tree-free paper alternatives if possible. Tree-free paper is made from agricultural products like waste straw, kenaf, and hemp, so not a single tree is cut down for its production!

If you are building a house or adding on to your home, utilize wood efficient building techniques and avoid old growth wood products. Learn about alternatives such as reclaimed or recycled lumber, composite lumber, and independently certified wood.

2) Reduce your oil consumption.

Even though oil is currently used to drive our cars, fly our planes, operate our factories, and warm our homes, we really don't have to use oil for these things. We can use different things-or alternative resources-like the sun and the wind to make energy. Light and heat from the sun can be used to make solar power and windmills can be used to capture the power of the wind. The sun and the wind are great sources of energy because they don't destroy the rainforests or pollute the planet. Until our energy supply comes completely from alternative resources like the sun or the wind, many of us will need to use oil in our daily lives. By reducing the amount of oil we use, however, we can make a big difference to help the rainforests. There are many ways we can reduce the amount of oil we use each day.

Firstly, instead of driving our cars everywhere, we can walk, ride our bikes, carpool, and take local mass transportation whenever possible. We can also write to automobile companies asking them to make cars that run on alternative fuels that do not come from oil. The next time you purchase a car, choose one that gets good gas mileage and avoid gas guzzling sports utility vehicles. Make sure your family's car tires are inflated properly since low air in tires uses more gas than is necessary.

Secondly, Gasoline and plastic are two things that are made from petroleum, or oil. A lot of oil comes from the rainforests through a process called extraction. Since oil extraction is very harmful to the rainforests, using less oil products can help save the rainforests. We can use less plastic by using glass, ceramic, metal, and cloth instead. Take a cloth bag with you to the market instead of using a plastic grocery bag. Use a glass or a ceramic mug to drink from instead of plastic cups, and when buying a drink, buy it in a glass bottle instead of a plastic bottle whenever possible. If you have a plastic water bottle, do not throw it out and buy a new one. Instead, rinse it thoroughly and refill it again and again.

Thirdly, write a letter to the president of Shell Oil Company. Tell him that you want Shell Oil to stop drilling for oil in rainforest areas. Tell him you care about the trees and all the animals and people that live in the rainforest, and ask him to find ways to use solar and wind power instead of oil. Let him know how important the rainforests really are!

Write to:
Phillip J. Carroll, CEO
Shell Oil
P. O. Box 2463
Houston, TX 77252

3) Change your diet

Many doctors believe that a plant-based diet (also called a vegetarian or vegan diet) full of fresh fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, and whole grains is the healthiest way to eat. Some people choose to eat more chicken, turkey, and fish instead of red meat. While this will help save the rainforests, it is important to know that eating a plant-based diet is the best thing that you can do for the environment.

One thing we can do to help save the rainforests is to drink orange juice made only from oranges that are grown in the United States. Orange juice containers will say where their oranges are grown. Oftentimes it will say that the oranges are from Brazil, which means they were grown on cleared rainforest land. If that's the case, try to find another brand of orange juice to buy.

Also, look for snack foods like nuts and dried fruits that are labeled sustainably harvested from the rainforest. This means that they came from the rainforests without harming the trees, plants, animals or people that live there. Eating these foods helps the rainforest, and they're good for you too!

The big reason rainforests are being destroyed is for beef. Millions of acres of rainforest are slashed and burned, which means that the land is set on fire in order to clear it. The cleared land is then turned into grass pastures for cows. These cows get butchered and are often sent to the United States to be put into fast-food hamburgers, frozen meat products, and canned pet food. For every quarter-pound fast-food hamburger that comes from the rainforest, 55 square feet of rainforest is destroyed. That is the size of a small kitchen!

There are a lot of ways to eat less beef. You can start by eating more plantbased foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and legumes. Have you ever tried a vegetarian burrito filled with beans, rice, and vegetables? Or a tofu hot dog topped with ketchup, mustard, and relish? Many grocery stores now carry a variety of meat alternatives, including veggie burgers, soy sausage, and soy baloney. You'd be surprised at how tasty beef-free foods can be!

The next time you're at a restaurant, consider ordering something that does not contain beef. You can also talk to your parents about the food your family eats at home. Ask your family if they would try eating one half the amount of beef they normally eat at home in a week. Experiment with this new way of eating for one week and then see if everyone is willing to try it for another week. Remember, small changes at every meal add up to a big difference!

We all need food to survive. Making positive, rainforest-friendly choices about what we eat can help the rainforests survive as well. We all have the power to save the rainforests!

4) Support green organizations

In 1999, Home Depot, the single largest retailer of lumber in the world, agreed to phase out its sales of old growth wood. This victory was a direct result of the hard work of grassroots activists, who staged more than six hundred demonstrations at Home Depot stores across the U. S. and Canada. You can play a critical role in future victories by joining or starting a Grassroots Action Group in your area! Contact RAN's Grassroots Coordinator at 415-398-4404 or [email protected] for help in finding a local group or advice on starting your own group. Equally important, help protect the forests in your region by getting involved with a local forest preservation group.

Rainforest Action Network is an effective, hard-hitting organization. In 1985, RAN launched a nationwide boycott of Burger King, which was importing cheap beef from tropical rainforest countries. Two years later, Burger King canceled thirty-five million dollars worth of beef contracts and agreed to stop importing beef from the rainforest. RAN then led a global consumer boycott against Mitsubishi, which resulted in Mitsubishi Motor Sales America and Mitsubishi Electric America committing to unprecedented environmental reviews of their business activities. Most recently, as a result of a two year campaign led by RAN, the nation's top home improvement etailers and largest home builders agreed to phase out the sale and use of wood from the Earth's endangered forests.

Raising money to help protect rainforest land is easy and important. You can join together with kids from your classroom or neighborhood to hold a popcorn or lemonade sale, a car wash, a rainforest play, a rummage sale, or to collect aluminum cans to recycle for cash. Another way to raise money for the rainforests is to just ask 5 or 10 people you know if they will give one dollar for the rainforests. If ten of you each ask five people for one dollar, you've just raised 50 dollars! Write to Rainforest Action Network for other ideas on how to fundraise for the rainforest.

5) Don't buy products made from endangered species of plants or animals

You can help stop species extinction, too. Don't buy products made from endangered species of plants or animals; if you're not sure about what you're buying, ask the merchant or call an organization like the World Wildlife Fund to find out. Avoid buying exotic pets from pet stores; even those bred in captivity come from stock to which wild specimens must be added in order to keep them healthy. Learn more about conservation programs from the World Wildlife Fund and IUCN, learn about what the U.S. is doing about extinction from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and check out the IUCN Red List of Endangered species.

6) Write letters

Writing letters to the presidents of companies, or corporations, that destroy the rainforest is a very powerful thing to do. Unfortunately, there are many corporations that destroy the rainforest by logging the trees, drilling for oil, or using rainforest beef in their products.

One of the largest companies in the United States that logs and sells old growth wood is Boise. Boise is logging and selling wood and paper products from some of the world’s rarest and most endangered old growth forests. For example, Boise sells wood products that come from the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia and the Amazon—products such as mahogany desks. Mahogany desks are made from rainforest trees that can be hundreds of years old and carry as many as 1200 species of plants and animals on a single tree! Please write to Boise Cascade and ask them to stop destroying old growth forests around the world.

Write to:
George Harad, Chairman & CEO
Boise Corporation
1111 West Jefferson Street
PO Box 50
Boise, ID 83728

7) Educate yourself and others

Rainforests are magical places that are important to every living thing on earth. Whether we live in the city, country, mountains, or deserts, rainforests affect all of us. Learn more about the rainforests and why they are so magical and important. Tell your friends and family what you have learned about the rainforests and encourage them to join you in helping save them.

National and international organizations must also do their part to prevent extinction. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) compiles a Red List of Threatened species and advises governments and organizations on conservation issues. In 1973, a treaty called the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) was drawn up to provide an international standard for wildlife trade. Currently 136 countries attend the biannual CITES conventions, where members agree on lists of endangered species to be protected from unregulated trade. Trade for these species is either prohibited or subject to authorization by the importing government, depending on the appendix in which they are placed. Appendix I bans trade in severely threatened species such as the gorilla. Appendix II requires that trade of species such as the Pacific Coast mahogany be strictly regulated based on scientific determination of extinction threat. And Appendix III, which covers species considered less threatened (like the Red-breasted toucan), gives limited protection under which governments, not scientists, impose the regulations on trade.

Case Study: Nature Safaris Private Biological Reserve

The 10 square kilometers of Nature Safaris Private Biological Reserve were found to be home of 300 species of birds, two times the number living in the broad-leafed forests of all of North America. One tree in our Private Reserve may contain more species of ants than found in the entire United Kingdom. 
But for all this wealth of organisms, there’s a constant struggle for scarce resources. Plants fight for raw materials, and life finds ingenious ways to take advantage of every niche and every scrap of energy. Beneath the vast spreading canopy there are, in fact, many very different worlds. 
This overview provides portraits of the trees, plants, animals and insects of the Amazon Rainforest. It sketches the relationships which link these organisms together in an intricate web of life.

Working together one step at a time,

we have the power to save the rainforests!