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| -Thank you to Cluan S.for this lovely graphic |
Tropical Rainforests flourish around the Equator because they like high, even temperatures and abundant rainfall. When the area is large enough, some such as the Amazon, generate rainfall themselves.
Large leaves on tall trees intercept the rain and allow it to percolate gently into the earth. As the sun warms up each day, they slowly release this moisture back into the atmosphere through transpiration. The trees with their layered understoreys act like multistorey apartments for a whole range of species, some ground dwelling, some preferring the intermediate levels and others the canopy. Despite covering only 2% of the earth's surface, tropical rainforests contain around 50 - 80% of its biodiversity. They also do a great deal for humans.
Rainforests are considered the lungs of the earth, with the Amazon alone producing around 20% of the world’s oxygen. They influence weather and climate – they buffer floods, absorb and slowly release water for agriculture and distant cities. They also provide humans with many of their other material needs – timber for shelter and firewood, foods, fats, fibre, medicine – coffee, cocoa, and even some of our spiritual ones. They also store many billions of tons of carbon – globally in the order of 2.4 billion metric tons with the Amazon alone accounting for 650 billion tons.
We also know that most of the world's tropical forests are in trouble.
Unfortunately, the many useful things the forests give to humans along with livelihoods and profits, continue to lead to their rapid destruction. Climate change is also starting to have an impact on these vital ecosystems:
Global Effects:
- Carbon Sink Weakening: Tropical forests absorb ~30% of human CO₂ emissions, but this capacity is declining
- Feedback Loops: Deforestation + warming = more fires, more emissions, less rainfall → further forest loss
- Biodiversity Crisis: Climate stress compounds habitat loss, pushing species toward extinction
- Hydrological Disruption: Forests regulate rainfall across continents—Amazon drying affects rainfall in the Andes, the Congo influences West African monsoons and drier seasons contribute to drought and more frequent and intense fires
- Tipping Points: Collapse of one major ecosystem such as this, can destabilise others, along with the economies which depend on them
Initially I will be talking about the Tropical Rainforests, though later I also want to touch briefly on those in Temperate regions. For the most part this will just be a bit of snapshot about the status of the more famous forest regions but I will be going into a bit more detail about some of the less well -known ones, partly because they highlight some specific issues and because collectively, they too contribute to our global climate and atmosphere.
While there is much bad news, we will also look at some of the ways in which governments and others are turning things around. We'll start with the Americas, then move on to Africa and lastly South East Asia and the Pacific. I hope you will enjoy this journey of discovery as much as I have.
The Americas
The Amazon
The Amazon which accounts for half the world’s tropical rainforest, continues to experience the greatest loss. While Colombia has reduced deforestation in its portion by 33% since last year – it also holds the smallest share and would have to keep reducing deforestation by 20% per year to meet its targets. The rest, particularly in Brazil and Bolivia, is facing a new threat. For the first time, despite the generally moist conditions, fire is becoming a serious risk due a combination of higher temperature and prolonged drought.
During 2024 Brazil which has 60% of the Amazon experienced
47,000 fire alerts and an area the size of California was burnt. In Bolivia, 3
million acres of primary forest were lost due to fires, an increase of 66%. and tipping
some parts of the forest into releasing stored carbon and contributing to
further warming, instead of absorbing it.
| 🌍 Category | Key Insights |
|---|---|
| 🔥 Current Status |
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| 🌿 Ecological Role |
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| 🇨🇴 Colombia: A Bright Spot |
Success attributed to:
Remaining threats:
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Conservation Measures
🌱 Key Conservation Initiatives
| Initiative | Focus | Region |
|---|---|---|
| Amazonia 4.0* | Bioeconomy and tech-driven forest protection | Brazil |
| MAAP (Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project) | Real-time satellite deforestation alerts | Peru, Brazil, Colombia |
| Tropical Forest Forever Facility | $125B fund to reward forest conservation | G20-backed, includes Amazon nations |
| Community-based ecotourism & entrepreneurship | Income generation + forest protection | Brazil (e.g., Mamirauá, Novo Airão) |
* Amazonia 4.0 is a nonprofit institute harnessing Industry 4.0 technologies and traditional knowledge to build a high-value bioeconomy in the Amazon. It develops advanced methods to transform native forest inputs into premium products, empowers local and indigenous communities, and creates alternatives to deforestation by demonstrating scalable, sustainable value chains.
Its core initiatives include:
Laboratórios Criativos da Amazônia (LCAs): mobile bio-factories delivering on-site training and technology transfer for non-timber product innovation.
Academia Amazônia 4.0: capacity-building courses that merge ancestral wisdom with 4th Industrial Revolution tools.
Biomas 4.0: a program extending the bioeconomy model to other Brazilian biomes (Atlantic Forest, Cerrado, Pantanal, Caatinga) to foster cross-ecosystem sustainability.
Through these pillars, Amazonia 4.0 aims to avert irreversible savannistion - becoming grasslands, by keeping degradation below critical thresholds and securing long-term socioeconomic and environmental resilience in the world’s largest tropical forest.
A Tale of Two Billionaires
An interesting snippet. In recent weeks, while Swedish billionaire Johan Eliasch spent $14 million buying 400,000 acres of the Brazilian Amazon to conserve it by taking it out of commercial use, another whose company is ironically named after this iconic rainforest, was flying in guests for his wedding in Venice in 96 private planes emitting the equivalent of 690 tons of CO2. In monetary terms that's $US 22,800 in US carbon pricing, $US 34,000 in EU carbon pricing and a whopping $US 48,300, in Australia's, all far in excess of what Bezos contributes to conservation.
Eliasch meanwhile, has thus far contributed to the conservation of 37million acres of rainforest globally through his Rainforest Trust.
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