2024 is the year in which people should put into practice all that they have planned and designed so far. Certainly, the goal of no more deforestation or preventing climate change does not ask for new strategies, it wants unyielding action now.
World Rainforest Day is observed annually on the 22nd of June and is an initiative of Rainforest Partnership established in 2017, The day aims to raise awareness on the role of standing forests for climate, nature, biodiversity, culture and People, and also build a platform with a collective vision for the protection and restoration of the world’s remaining rainforests. From 2021 to 2023, we have been the global convener of the Annual World Rainforest Day Summit. Brought to life by 105 collaborating organizations and attendees from 77 countries, the Summits facilitated knowledge exchange and community building with one shared purpose, for this operationalizing of resilience and its employment in a targeted way to advance the sustainable protection of forests. In 2024, we extended further and introduced the World Rainforest Day pledge program to advance rainforest and climate solutions today globally.
Global awareness about the need to protect rainforests — home to over 50% of plant life, a third of all animals, and a source of much of the world’s oxygen — is the purpose for launching the initiative. The concept of World Rainforest Day 2024 is ‘Empowering the World in Defense of Our Rainforests’.
Rainforests
So let’s get a brief understanding of Rainforests. A rainforest can be described as a geographic location that features forests with a high level of precipitation throughout the year more so the year-round heavy rainfall. The majority of rainforests occur in regions of the tropics, yet some tropical rainforests can be identified in temperate zones such as the Pacific Northwest of NORTH AMERICA or Tasmania. While occupying less than 6% of the Earth’s surface, rainforests yield roughly 50% of the world’s animal species, and plants as well as 90% of the species of many animals, including monkeys, birds, frogs, spiders and insects.
New plant, insect, and animal species are being found today in the same way they used to be discovered several years ago. The Amazon rainforest, for example, is believed to harbour up to eight hundred thousand and this is a single floor of this diverse building. This diversity, in addition to being a storehouse of valuable genes, supplies most of the consumables we actively employ in our everyday life routine; coffee and fruits we consume day by day, cosmetics we wash with, or medications that alleviate our pain – though such list is far from exhaustive.
One key aspect that is important to highlight is that rainforests have a significant function in climate control and carbon storage. Stomata, the minute pores on the surface of leaves, release water in the form of vapour known as transpiration that aids in the creation of atmospheric rivers, which transport moisture over long distances across continents and bring rainfall to parts of the planet that may not see a drop of rain for years.
Rainforests are significant carbon reservoirs, or what is known as carbon repositories, because they help to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air through photosynthesis. Tree plants use CO2 for photosynthesis and release oxygen into the atmosphere, and carbon is sequestered both, in tree trunks and branches, and the ground. As for the terrestrial biospheric carbon pool, the Amazon Rainforest alone is calculated to contain tens of billions of tons of carbon. Apart from gaining the greenhouse effect by lowering the quantity of CO2 in the atmosphere, the stated procedure facilitates the carbon cycle, which is one of the natural lifecycle processes that more or less regulate the climate of the Earth. Due to their complex structure and their ability to store and sequester carbon as well as control climate within large land masses, rainforests remain humanity’s biggest assets in mitigating and even in some cases reversing some of the disastrous outcomes that are associated with climate change.
Cultural and Human Importance
People who still live in rainforests continue to practice the ancient ways of life and are therefore a source of diverse cultures. The vast geographic area, about one-third of the area covered by the rainforests of the world, is occupied by more than 30 million heads of families, 350 indigenous and ethnos of the population with their unique culture and traditions. Within the geographical location of Papua New Guinea (PNG), which is ten million people in rainforest country, more than eight hundred languages are used. Central African rainforests, especially the Congolian Lowland, also host many linguistic and cultural diverse groups.
Most of these individuals rely directly on rainforests for their sources of income, everyday needs and other necessities in life. Farming, fishing, and hunting activities are particularly associated with a cultural perspective on the means of subsistence and social organization. Indigenous inhabitants of the rainforest areas have unique practices that can help promote the conservation of forests, agriculture practices and various scientific practices associated with the rainforest. These are learnt from generations and act as key factors in the conservation of ecosystems and human community welfare. It has to be pointed out that Indigenous and local people living in rainforests are integral to the protection of the latter as well as to the promotion of sustainable, long-lasting systems, which can and should involve them, as they possess invaluable knowledge that is necessary for restructuring existing systems and creating novel nature-based solutions. It is crucial to acknowledge and facilitate the rights, knowledge, and engagement of indigenous and local communities.
The Global Importance of Rainforest Conservation
World Rainforest Day is a yearly event which takes place on 22nd June. This day is observed to help people develop an understanding of how forests, especially tropical rainforests, are important for the functionality of the earth and why they should be preserved.
Rainforests are located in all the continents across the globe excluding the South pole or Antarctica. The two major rainforests today are located in the continent of South America near the Amazon River and in Africa near the Congo River. Southeast Asia has tropical islands and Australia as well as rainforests. That is, the temperate rainforests of the coastal and mountain regions of the Pacific Northwest of North America as well as Northern Europe also represent a kind of rainforest.
Tropical moist forests more popularly known as rainforests are the oldest ecosystems on earth with some having remained as they are for at least seventy million years. They are highly fertile, self-contained ecosystems that support over one-half of all species of plants and animals on the planet despite accounting for only 6% of Earth’s surface area. So, rainforests are incredibly packed with vegetation and animal density; even a one sq km area may contain up to 150 species of flowers, 75 trees, 40 species of birds, and 15 butterflies.
There is nothing quite as significant as the amount of bio-diversity that is found within rainforest regions as it is vital to our health and the overall existence of the planet. Rainforests play an important role in climate change on our planet – the so-called climate moderators – as well as provide us with many of the products that are part of our daily use. Human encroachment and particularly industrial and agricultural development, however, are reported to have taken a toll on the health of world rainforests. People, their governments, Intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations as well as conservation organizations are doing their best to conserve such important but vulnerable ecosystems.
Therefore, as a message for the future WORLD RAINFOREST DAY, everyone should contribute to conserving these important biomes. This means calling for more aggressive actions that will reverse the deforestation process that has caused climate changes thus leading to more problems for the already threatened forests that need to be preserved for the benefit of future generations.