World Rainforest Day – 22nd June
World Rainforest Day – 22nd June
World Rainforest Day, celebrated on June 22 every year after it was launched in 2017. It is a joint effort to promote knowledge and inspire action in order to conserve one of the Earth’s most valuable resources, rainforests.
A rainforest is an area of tall, mostly evergreen trees and a high amount of rainfall.They are incredibly diverse and complex, home to more than half of the world’s plant and animal species. Most rainforests are structured in four layers: emergent, canopy, understory, and forest floor. Each layer has unique characteristics based on differing levels of water, sunlight, and air circulation. While each layer is distinct, they exist in an interdependent system: processes and species in one layer influence those in another.The forest floor is the darkest of all rainforest layers.
Rainforests cover 6% of the earth and home to 50% of all terrestrial biodiversity. They also play a vital role in global climate patterns by absorbing large amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing carbon in trees and soil. By cycling water through their networks of trees, they create currents that serve to transport water through entire continents, cooling them down and providing them with a reliable water source. Erosion, drought and floods are also prevented by rainforests.
Tropical rainforests provide timber as well as animal products such as meat and hides. Rainforests also have value as tourism destinations and for the ecosystem services provided. Plant-derived medicines are commonly used for fever, fungal infections, burns, gastrointestinal problems, pain, respiratory problems, and wound treatment. At the same time, rainforests are usually being exploited or removed for agricultural purposes, for power plants and for the paper industry. Rainforests are disappearing at an alarmingly fast pace, largely due to human development over the past few centuries.
The Amazon rain forest is the world`s largest rain forest and river system and the most biologically diverse place on the earth.It covers 6.7 million square kilometres and contains millions of species.Sinharaja is the last viable tropical rain forest in Sri Lanka. It was declared as a Natural Heritage Wilderness area on October 21st 1988.
The theme of the world rainforest day 2023 is ` conserve, restore and regenerate.
– Source: Internet –