Why forest conservation is important should be a question for many people these days. Climate change is happening much quicker than expected, and the media is quiet about the rainforest. But the forest brings us fresh air to breath, and this is why forest conservation is important.
These words appear as text in cyberspace, which is part of an attempt to reduce the reams of paper being used for traditional magazines. Books are following suit, with more and more of them being published in versions intended for electronic readers.
Wholesale collapse of the worldwide economy has led to less demand for new housing, which has lowered the amount of timber used for houses. It has all helped toward a new appreciation for the magnificent monoliths of the forest: trees.
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Trees Have Protected and Nurtured Ecosystems for Centuries
A twenty-two year old woman made headlines and television news back in 1999 for her extraordinary efforts to educate people about the vanishing redwood forests. Her name is Julia Butterfly Hill (Juliabutterfly.com), and on December 18th, 1999, she came back down to earth after having lived in the canopy of a 180 foot tall redwood tree for 738 days.
The tree, nicknamed “Luna,” was determined to have been nearly 1500 years old. Ms. Hill successfully helped establish a preserve for Luna and a three square mile buffer zone. This brought media attention to the fact that only 3% of the redwood forests remain.
Trees in many corners of the world have been around since Leif Ericson’s voyages to Vinland and the legend of King Arthur. All the while they have been providing nutrients and homes for various animal life and have given oxygen and shade to humans.
Trees usually need a long time to grow, which is why forest conservation is important to us as a species.
Trees Nourish the Earth in More Ways than One
A bumper sticker curiously states “Have You Thanked a Green Plant Today?” Every child learns in school that plants and trees capture solar energy and convert it to glucose (food) that is passed on to other organisms, through a process known as photosynthesis.
As biologist Sylvia S. Mader writes in her textbook Biology (McGraw Hill, 2010), photosynthesis produces enormous amounts of carbohydrates. She states that “if it were instantly converted to coal and the coal were loaded into standard railroad cars, all the trees in the world would fill more than one hundred cars per second with coal.”
Speaking of coal, it owes its existence to a host of trees and other plants from 300 million years ago that died and did not decompose. They were compressed to form the coal that is mined (and burned) today. Trees and plants are known as “autotrophs,” among only a few organisms that make their own food.
This is another reason why forest conservation is important. We can not push more co2 in the air and keep burning our ressources.
The Miracle of Photosynthesis Occurs at the Molecular Level
Every high school student in the United States must take biology, where teachers attempt to acquaint them with the wonders of the botanical world. Generally speaking, the deep analysis of photosynthesis ends with a view through a microscope of a eulodia leaf.
On tests, students may have to label the cell walls, the nucleus and the cytoplasm, but the business of producing energy takes place in a tiny marvel called the chloroplast.
Resembling stacks of green hockey pucks surrounded by a porous wall, the thylakoid membranes capture wavelengths of light energy and process it along an electron chain through the chemical changes into glucose. Two such separate reactions occur, along with a delicate, divinely timed cycle that outputs oxygen into the atmosphere as an end result.
Destruction of Trees Hurts Everyone and Everything
According the Save The Rainforest website (Savetherainforest.org), the loss of this hugely important resource happens through logging, agriculture, mining and industry, and progressive urban development. To help feed American’s appetite for fast-food hamburgers, for instance, square miles of forest have been cleared for cattle grazing land.
When the forest is cleared of South American rain forest, entire ecosystems are disrupted and many insect and animal species are wiped out before they are even discovered. Flowering plants which thrive in a rain forest may hold chemical keys to life saving pharmaceuticals.
If there was no better reason, this is a very crucual reason why forest conservation is important.
One Person Can Help Make a World of Difference for the Future of Trees
The owner of Save The Rainforest likes to discuss how the actions of one individual can make a world of difference in the future of the world as we know it. She calls for people to “enjoy the absolute magic of this gift called life, the miracle of every breath.”
The Save the Rainforest website notes that myriads of individual choices can have a great impact, such as recycling more, avoiding overpackaged items at supermarkets and department stores, and limiting overzealous dependence on electrical appliances.
When the mercury rises during the upcoming summer and people enjoy the cooling shade that tall trees provide, their grandeur and nourishment should be celebrated every day through a new bumper sticker slogan: “Have you hugged a tree today?”
Conclussion
Why forest conservation is important? Trees are a scarce ressource on our planet, and we need the trees to have oxygen.
