Rainforests – Morne Trois Pitons National Park in Dominica

Between the 1st and 6th of December 1997, the World Heritage Committee listed 46 new sites as Heritage Sites. Amongst sites like the Pyrenees in France/Spain, the Historic Centre of Tallinn in Estonia, Maritime Greenwich in the United Kingdom, the Heard and McDonald Islands in Australia and the Ancient City of Ping Yao in China, the Morne Trois Pitons National Park of Dominica was designated a World Heritage Site.

The Morne Trois Pitons National Park was chosen based in natural criteria because of the park’s beauty, diverse flora and endemic species, rivers, waterfalls volcanoes and constant geo-morphological processes. As a rainforest that extends into largest areas of Dominica’s interior, Morne Trois Pitons National Park is appreciated for the fresh water lakes, fumaroles totaling to just over 50, hot springs, valleys, the wealthiest biodiversity in the Lesser Antilles and precipitous slopes within its rainforests. The park got its name from The Morne Trois Pitons, or Mountain with Three Peaks, which is a towering mountain whose name very much speaks for itself. The mountain reaches an altitude of 1,342 meters, and is one of the five volcanoes/mountains found in this rainforest, one of which is the Morne Diablotin – the highest mountain in Dominica. This rainforest in Dominica is also home to the second largest boiling lake in the world, complemented with the Valley of Desolation where fumaroles and hot springs are found.

Morne Trois Pitons rainforest is 6,875 hectares in size and is situated in the south-central of Dominica. The rainforest has a climate that is humid tropical and rainfall measures up to 7m annually. Dominica’s location tends to pose the threat of tropical hurricanes and storms, as the island is in the hurricane belt of the islands. Within the park is a variety of rainforest forms such as montane rainforest, elfin forest, secondary rain forest, montane thicket, mature rainforest and semi-evergreen forest. Over 5,000 species of vascular plants exist in the Morne Trois Pitons National Park, including about 21 endemic species. To expound, the rainforest in Dominica is home to about 135 different species of birds, 30 decapod crustaceans, 12 bat species and 4 distinct species of reptiles.

Though similar rainforests exist in nearby islands like St. Lucia, Guadeloupe and Martinique and Montserrat, Morne Trois Pitons National Park differs as the largest rainforest in terms of forest cover, has the most diverse volcanic features and is the most unaltered, thereby meriting UNESCO’s category II ranking. Rainforests in Dominica, is therefore compared to other rainforests and national parks, save Cuba where the Alexander von Humboldt National Park is larger and more varied in plant and animal species.

In terms of efforts and success in preservation, other rainforests and sites with which Dominica rainforests are comparable include Garajonay (Canary Islands), Hawaii Volcanoes National Parh (Hawaii), Vallee de Mai (Seychelles) amd Yukushima (Japan). According to UNESCO’s report, within the Caribbean region, the Northern Forest Reserve on the very same island of Dominica is the only other rival national park or site to Morne Trois Pitons National Park.

What can you do to help save rainforests?

Rainforests are important to life on Earth because of their importance to the environment. Trees help uphold soil and prevent erosion and siltation, they also absorb carbon dioxide from the air we breathe and release oxygen. Many of the beautiful plants and animals that we enjoy learning about live in rainforests, which if were destroyed would also mean the destruction of the homes of these wonderful plants and animals. Can we imagine a world bare of tropical plants, colorful winged butterflies and exotic birds like peacocks?

Many years ago, rainforests covered large amounts of land, extending from one country to the other, somewhat creating borderless land masses. Rainforests help to keep the Earth cool by recycling water vapor and allowing clean rainfall on land. Rainfall helps wash away dust, provide fresh water for rivers, as well as plants and animals so that they can grow and live healthy lives. Can we even imagine life without fresh water?

Despite the importance of rainforests to the environment, rainforests have been threatened by industrialization, commercial activity, farming and growing populations. With more people the demand for food, shelter and space rises, and these are often obtained and achieved by clearing land. Sometimes large areas of land are burnt, hundreds of animals are put to graze and trees are chopped for timber. These activities in rainforests, though they appear necessary are harmful to rainforests because once gone, huge trees which took hundreds of years to grow to full size are unable to grow again and will in most cases require hundreds of years and the favorable conditions in order to do so. Animals and birds will also migrate to find new homes if they are unable to secure food as they once did in the rainforest or unable to reproduce and safely provide nests or homes for their young. The country also becomes bare and is transformed into a ‘country jungle’; a rainforest with no trees, only concrete buildings.

So, how can we save rainforests? The first way to help protect rainforests is through education. Many people are not aware of the significance of rainforests to the environment and go about cutting trees in order to earn money. By logging, people set up businesses so that they can generate income, whilst in the drive to develop a country, rainforests are destroyed in order to build roads. Educating people about rainforests can be done through schools, radio and television programs as well as by printing clothing such as t-shirts, pants or bags with ‘save the trees’ or ‘save the rainforest’ logos. Documentaries showing the bad effects of careless framing practices and land clearing can be televised and a greater love for nature can be instilled. As such, people can be taught about the importance of rainforests in herbal medicines and the healing powers of Mother Nature for relaxation, relieving stress and curing illnesses. If people are unaware of the unimaginable benefits of crops and trees that grow around them, it would be difficult for them to develop the necessary passion for those trees and herbs if these are considered as just grass or weed.

It has been evident that people living in communities near or in rainforests as well as countries with large areas of rainforests are among the ‘poorest’ in the world. In the common sense of the word ‘poor’, these communities and countries lack infrastructure such as roads, bridges and industrial sites. Taken from a different perspective however, if these communities and countries were to develop sustainable and self-sufficient economies, what could have been poverty because of large rainforest areas could be converted into wealth.

Rainforests can be saved by using them wisely, developing ecotourism and regulating the use of the resources of the rainforests for sustainability and self-sufficiency. Well thought out and properly designed road networks can be built without destroying too much or any of the rainforests by building roads along the coast or along routes that do not have rainforests.

Farmers who depend on rainforests and their surrounding areas can be given financial assistance by the government and private businesses. In this way, people can protect their livelihood, the country can be provided with a steady supply of healthy fruits, root crops, poultry and vegetables, and the government can be ensured that rainforests are protected because of approved and appropriate farming practices. If farmers were to give up their lands, farms would be replaced with commercial businesses.

Governments can help save rainforests also by implementing policies that require commercial and industrial companies to operate using methods that do not negatively affect the environment and rainforests. In the event that mining or factory projects, for instance, are undertaken, to protect the environment, natural resources and rainforests, modernized energy saving and non-polluting machinery and tools should be a requirement for operations.

For many years now, especially as the world’s natural resources are increasingly becoming less or insufficient, millions of dollars have been spent in building recycling plants. Recycling is another way in which we can save rainforests. One does not have to spend millions, but simple things like reusing paper which has not been fully used will help reduce the number of trees needed to be cut for manufacturing paper. This is particularly well taught, learnt and implemented in schools. Furthermore, recycles paper can be bought over normal paper by schools and businesses. These practices help save rainforests as well as the environment.

The Amazon Rainforest

The Amazon Rainforest covers significant amounts of land and extends over Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia, Suriname, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana and French Guyana, which represents about 40% of the South America and may be compared to the size of the 48 states situated on the North American continent. The Amazon rainforest is encompasses the Amazon River Basin, where the second longest river globally after the Nile and the largest globally, comprising more than 1100 tributaries which are an important source of sustenance for plants, animals and human beings. Though the Amazon rainforest has been accessed by man and impacted by their presence, the importance of this rainforest to the earth continues to be recognised. There are several types of vegetation and ecosystems in the Amazon rainforest, some of which are savannas, deciduous forests, rainforests, flooded forests and flooded forests.

Africa Rainforests

The most important rainforest in Africa now lies in the Congo basin. Congo’s rainforests are second in size to the Amazon rainforest and extends over other countries like Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, the Central African Republic and Cameroon. About two-thirds of the rainforest still preserved but the rainforest is under threat of human intervention. Congo rainforest is home to gorillas, bonobos, peacocks, chimpanzees, elephants and a wide variety of birds, insects; in all, about 600 species of trees and about 10,000 species of animals; making up 70% of Africa’s biodiversity, ecosystems and rainforests. More than half the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo which has a population of roughly 60 million people depend on the rainforest for survival. The rainforest is integral to culture, diet, spiritual belief, housing and traditional practices. The Congo rainforests also have a very long and interesting historical background for tribal warfare, ethnic violence, the ivory and Arab slave trade. Commercial logging and land clearing for communities are a major threat to the rainforest.

Central America Rainforests

Once upon a time, rainforests covered extensive portions of land in Central America, making practically of the region covered with deep rainforests. Central America rainforests are endowed with many rare and peculiar species of plants, trees and animals. The southwest of Costa Rica, for example, the Osa Peninsula is known for its diverse flora and fauna and animals such as the Harpy Eagle, jaguars, tapirs, macaw, pumas, dart frogs and the fer-de-lance, Costa Rica’s deadliest snake. Some of the birds in this rainforest are rare and were declared endangered species. The rainforest of the Osa Peninsula was described by National Geographic as ‘one of the biologically intense places on earth’.

Southern Asian Rainforests

Rainforests in the southeast of Asia are known as the oldest rainforests in the world, with a history that goes back as far as millions of years ago. Throughout the different periods of climate changes that the world has undergone, the climate of rainforests in this region remained stable; explained to be as a result of the rainforests location on the equator and surrounding rivers. Southern Asian rainforests extend over 20,000 islands making up the chain of islands located between Asia and Australia. Rainforest coverage is therefore calculated at about 1,112,000 m² and measured to be nearly two times the size of Alaska. Rainforests in south Asia have a northeastern monsoon season between the months of October and February and the southwestern season from April to August. The rainforest is considered to have a tropical wet climate, falling into the Köppen climate zone, and influenced by maritime winds which come from the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean.

Australian Rainforests

The main rainforests in Australia is categorized as warm temperate rainforests. The rainforest is found in a sheltered valley and is home to over 200 rainforest species, including over 20,000 species of plants and flowers 15,000 of which are usually found in tropical rainforests, sub-tropical rainforests, cool temperate rainforests and warm temperate rain forests. The rainforest has rainfall over 1000mm every year and at times rainfall may increase to 200mm as well.

Forests are categorized as rainforests based on rain fall. As such, rainforests are forests with very high levels of rainfall of about 68 to 78 inches per year. There are two main types of rainforests, which are classified based on location. These are tropical rainforests and temperate rainforests.

The formation of tropical rainforests around the world is largely influenced by the inter tropical convergence zone or monsoon trough, which is the area that encircles the earth close to the equator, characterized by winds that join from both the northern and southern hemispheres. Tropical rainforests are specifically located in the tropics, between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer. Tropical forests are therefore founds in areas along that region of the earth, which include Southeast Asia, Central and South America, the Pacific Islands, northeastern Australia and Saharan Africa. Conversely, temperate rainforests are located in temperate regions such as in certain parts of Europe, North America, East Asia, parts of South America, Australia, New Zealand and the Far East coast of Russia.

Rainforests are interesting and highly sophisticated regions known to have four main layers or plant and animal life forms. Each of the layers found in the rainforest is different and serves a different function; these include the emergent layer, the canopy, the understory layer and the forest floor. The forest floor of a rainforest refers to the lowest layer where very little sunlight is able to penetrate; as a result providing a habitat for plant and animal species that are adapted to low light, including fungi which help increase decay activity in dead plants and animals of the rainforest. The understory of the rainforest is above the forest floor but below the canopy, thus situating itself between the two. There, many species of rainforest birds, insects, lizards, snakes, jaguars, leopards and other predators live. The understory gets only about 5% of rainforest sunlight, thus providing ideal conditions for shrubs and seed germination. Above the rainforest understory, the canopy possesses the rainforest’s hugest trees and wealthiest level of biodiversity. Put together, rainforests are said to be the habitat of at least half, that is, 50 percent of the earth’s plant life forms. In the emergent layer above the rainforest canopy, a smaller number but equally large trees are found. Some of the trees in the rainforest emergent layer grow between 45 to 80 meters tall depending on the type of tree. Animals found in the rainforest canopy are bats, eagles, monkeys and butterflies.

About 14% of the land surface of the earth was occupied by rainforests, contrary to the 6% of land occupied by rainforests today, meaning that there could be no more rainforests on the earth in less than half a century. It has been estimated that at least 137 insect, animal and plant species are destroyed daily because of destruction the earth’s rainforests. This decreases the chances of finding natural cures to illnesses given the medicinal value of the plants and animals in rainforests. Many of these life forms in rainforests have contributed to medicine and are a source of natural healing in many cultures.

Rainforests are more and more recognised for their ability to general income and foreign exchange through ecotourism, in light of the increased rarity of rain forests and untouched natural habitats. Whereas people once flocked to countries for vacation in hotels, today millions of people are visiting rainforests and jungles just to catch a glimpse of birds, trees, rivers and waterfalls that are becoming something of the past and part of a history in which they already exist. With illnesses on the rise and the search for ways of relieving stress, combating the ageing process and alternative medicine to artificial drugs because of their effects, rainforest still gives humanity the hope of a better, healthier and peaceful future.

Deforestation refers to clearing, destroying or removing natural forests. Deforestation occurs by burning, cutting or logging depending on the method of tree clearance used.

Due to increased populations, more demand for food, greater agricultural subsistence, increased exports, industrial and economic activity, trees are cut, with the end result being deforestation. Whenever populations increase or people migrate within a country from urban to rural and even secluded areas, trees are cleared to build houses. Large areas of land are also cleared for hotels and building industrial sites. In many cases, countries seek to increase exports in order to generate income and as a result deforest forested lands to setup plantations and farms for livestock.

Indigenous people were often directly negatively affected by deforestation because they usually lived in the interiors within rainforests where animal and plant forms are abundant. Living in forests gave the indigenous people access to fresh water sources, fresh air and constant food supply. Indigenous people also lived very simple lives, used natural material such as dried coconut tree branches to build their houses and had very little reason deforest the areas where they lived as their own livelihood and survival depended on the natural surroundings. With increased industrial activity, the construction of houses, inland roads and railways which could often only be built by deforestation, indigenous tribes were either robbed of their homeland and food or forced to move farther into mountains and interiors which were not deforested. Retreating farther to areas that were not deforested often made it difficult to survive like before and many times all the land was occupied, especially if the territory was not very large or had limited areas of rainforest. As a result, indigenous tribes were often integrated into new communities and obliged to adopt new lifestyles and practices or killed if any resistance was put up in defense of land occupation. Deforestation has therefore caused the world to lose an important source of knowledge, language and history because of the wipe out of many indigenous tribes.

The atmosphere and natural environment is negatively affected by deforestation. Deforestation causes animals, birds and organic life forms to lose their habitats as well, thus destroying biodiversity. Birds are either forced to migrate to new lands or disappear, whilst fresh water fish die as a result of soil erosion when deforestation takes place. Because of deforestation, trees are no longer there to provide protection from the sun, causing aridity, flooding, erosion and the eventual dry up of rivers. Rivers are an important source of life for people, as they are able to wash, clean and distribute water to homes. The absence of rivers because of deforestation causes many governments to spend millions of dollars annually in expensive water treatment plants and importing water. In other countries with widespread deforestation, droughts are frequent and intense, causing starvation and making it almost impossible to plant the very crops for which the land was deforested. The environment is also impacted by deforestation because of the large amounts of carbon dioxide that is emitted into the air due to burning. Large amounts of carbon dioxide and toxic compounds released in the air because of deforestation by way of burning methods are hazardous to human beings, since these cause cancers, lung diseases and many types of respiratory problems and illnesses.

To reduce the effects of deforestation, reforestation programs have been undertaken. Reforestation involves replanting trees so that soil erosion can be reduced, river and fresh water sources can be retained and natural plant and animal life forms can be protected. In certain countries, the negative impact of deforestation has been so severe that very little can be done to reverse the effects through reforestation since hardly anything is able to grow. Where it can be afforded, green house projects are implemented to provide an ‘artificial’ but natural environment for growing plants and vegetables, as well as creating natural habitats for living organisms.

Now that the world is aware of the ravaging consequences of deforestation and has seen proof of the damage that deforestation causes, a greater effort should be made by every individual and by governments to stop deforestation and to make efforts to recuperate lost trees, plant and animal life forms.