How You Can Help Rain Forests!
All our butterflies come from rain forests.
These tropical forests have stood for millennia and yet they are now
disappearing in just a couple of generations. It seems that while we
are all aware of their destruction, many people feel at a loss on how
exactly they can help.
Here are a number of practical steps we can each take to save the rain forests:-
Buy FSC wood products such as timber, hardboard, charcoal and paper.
The Forest Stewardship Council logo (FSC) ensures that the forest recovers after timber extraction. Forests are sustainable and trees can grow back if they are given half a chance. Most timber in B&Q is FSC certified but you have to look out for the logo in other DIY stores. Remember that most of the hardboard and chipboard in the UK is made up of non-sustainable, often illegal tropical timber. FSC is the most important way to help forests and their animals.
Buy recycled paper as well as recycling it. This is the only way to be sure that your paper is not cutting down forest. Whenever wood pulp is involved, try and buy recycled products, e.g. kitchen and toilet paper, A4 sheets from Viking Direct. The recycling industry is not financially viable unless we actually buy the recycled goods.
Buy an acre of rain forest www.rainforestconcern.org Tel. 0207 229 2093 buys forest to link up protected areas so that animals can move freely between the two. See also www.worldlandtrust.org. Why not join up with a group or school to help them.
Buy rain forest-friendly coffee e.g. Percol from Somerfield, or Rainforest alliance-certified coffee which is grown in the shade of the forest canopy. This generates cash while saving the forest canopy. The new varieties have been bred to grow out in the full sun where they give higher yields but in cleared forest areas
Here are a number of practical steps we can each take to save the rain forests:-
Buy FSC wood products such as timber, hardboard, charcoal and paper.
The Forest Stewardship Council logo (FSC) ensures that the forest recovers after timber extraction. Forests are sustainable and trees can grow back if they are given half a chance. Most timber in B&Q is FSC certified but you have to look out for the logo in other DIY stores. Remember that most of the hardboard and chipboard in the UK is made up of non-sustainable, often illegal tropical timber. FSC is the most important way to help forests and their animals.
Buy recycled paper as well as recycling it. This is the only way to be sure that your paper is not cutting down forest. Whenever wood pulp is involved, try and buy recycled products, e.g. kitchen and toilet paper, A4 sheets from Viking Direct. The recycling industry is not financially viable unless we actually buy the recycled goods.
Buy an acre of rain forest www.rainforestconcern.org Tel. 0207 229 2093 buys forest to link up protected areas so that animals can move freely between the two. See also www.worldlandtrust.org. Why not join up with a group or school to help them.
Buy rain forest-friendly coffee e.g. Percol from Somerfield, or Rainforest alliance-certified coffee which is grown in the shade of the forest canopy. This generates cash while saving the forest canopy. The new varieties have been bred to grow out in the full sun where they give higher yields but in cleared forest areas
Reduce use of Palm Oil. There are now whole
tropical landscapes transformed into this one palm, related to the Coconut.
This is causing deforestation at an almost unbelievable scale; all driven
by our 'developed world' markets. These tropical oils are the cheapest
and least healthy vegetable oils and are used in a multitude of processed
food, biscuits, peanut butter, etc.
Buy Alpro Soya milk. Soya beans are a major cause of forest destruction. Alpro soya is not sourced from farms that have cleared rain forest. Huge tracts of the Amazon are cut down to plant soya to feed animals such as chickens that we buy in the supermarket.
Buy Brazil nuts. These always come from intact tropical forests, as the bees that pollinate the Brazil nut trees need many different flowers from the forest to survive themselves. Without the bees, the flowers aren't pollinated and there's no fruit. Any product that generates cash from intact forest will help persuade people and their governments to protect forest.
Donate money to a rain forest charity.
Offset your part in the destruction of forests by donating to one of the rain forest charities.
www.rainforestconcern.org
www.rainforestalliance.org
www.elbosquenuevo.org in Costa Rica
or ourselves at www.magicoflife.org
Buy Alpro Soya milk. Soya beans are a major cause of forest destruction. Alpro soya is not sourced from farms that have cleared rain forest. Huge tracts of the Amazon are cut down to plant soya to feed animals such as chickens that we buy in the supermarket.
Buy Brazil nuts. These always come from intact tropical forests, as the bees that pollinate the Brazil nut trees need many different flowers from the forest to survive themselves. Without the bees, the flowers aren't pollinated and there's no fruit. Any product that generates cash from intact forest will help persuade people and their governments to protect forest.
Donate money to a rain forest charity.
Offset your part in the destruction of forests by donating to one of the rain forest charities.
www.rainforestconcern.org
www.rainforestalliance.org
www.elbosquenuevo.org in Costa Rica
or ourselves at www.magicoflife.org