The tropical rainforest

The rainforest is a large water reservoir and is often referred to as the "lungs of the earth" because it can store the largest amount of CO² and thus counteracts the greenhouse effect. It forms a huge “green belt” around the equator.

The climate there is very warm and humid and it rains several times a day.

There are no seasons at this location and the temperature differences between day and night are greater than in the individual months.

The leaves of the trees also have no specific time at which they fall, so the forest is called "evergreen".

The best known tropical forests are in South America, Central Africa and Southeast Asia. The largest contiguous rainforest is the Amazon in Brazil.

The tropical rainforest is a colorful, diverse habitat, because in this breathtaking place there are long, stable lianas, eraser small and large, motley birds, trees up to 80m high, poisonous frogs and climbing experts like the koala,

the sloth or howler monkey.

This evergreen forest is also a great treasure trove, offering foods such as bananas, pineapple, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, cocoa, sugar cane, coffee, oranges, rice, black pepper and nuts. There is also rubber, oils, resins and fibers.

Rubber is extracted from the rubber tree. This tree can grow up to 30m high. To obtain the latex milk juice, the bark of these trees is cut. This liquid then drips into a container attached to the tree trunk. Mattresses, car tires, erasers, seals and rubber gloves are made from rubber.

The breathtaking tropical rainforest is even a habitat for countless animal and plant species, although it only covers 3-4% of our entire earth, a good half of all animal species are at home here. Nobody knows exactly how many there are, because millions of them have not even been discovered. Animal species die out every day and many new ones are discovered every day. The diverse forest is divided into one floor, which is comparable to our high-rise buildings. Different animals live on each floor.

Animals such as the tapir, the okapi, the gorilla, the Sumatran tiger and the jaguar live on the ground layer or on the ground floor.

Then the shrub layer comes. There are shrubs that reach heights of up to 8 meters and animals such as the chameleon, the anteater, the hummingbird and the ant bird.

In the lower layer of trees there are trees that reach a height of about 20 meters. Coati, hummingbird species, poison dart frogs and butterflies live there.

It is actually strange that frogs live high on the trees, but in the tropical rainforest you are always amazed!

The canopy is between 25 and 40 meters high. Most of the rainforest animals live here. Sloths, bats, tamarins, tree snakes, trogons, toucans, iguanas, parrots, tree frogs and monkey species such as howler monkeys, orangutans, woolly monkeys and gibbons make themselves comfortable there.

In the last floor building, at the jungle giants, the trees are 60 to 80 meters high and have plank roots that are a few meters high and are stuck together in the form of a star and serve to stabilize them.

The trunk of many trees is so wide that it could even accommodate a car. Flowers or other plants called epiphytes grow on different trees.

This includes the world-famous orchids.

Many bird species such as toucans, aller, macaws and hummingbirds live on the giant trees, but tree frogs and butterflies such as the morpho moth are also at home here.

The forest is densely overgrown with trees and plants, so from a bird's eye view it looks like a green sea.

The tropical rainforest has been endangered for years.

Many arable farmers and large landowners of the tropical rainforest create their fields by slash-and-burn. But space is also made for cattle pastures and monocultures such as that of palm oil or soy.

First trees and bushes are cut off, then the area is burned down.

The forest areas are charred and countless unique animals and plants see death.

Many animals are in the middle of the flames and find no way out, so they are burned alive! Many children of the still living indigenous people who live in the tropical rainforest go hunting, wear colorful feather headdresses and paddle to school by canoe.

Most of them are Indians. You learn math and Portuguese. From an early age, they learn the language of the tribe and everything about animals and plants from their parents and grandparents, because they only live on what nature has to offer. One of the largest tribes in Brazil is the Guarani, with about 51,000 inhabitants.

Great indigenous peoples are also the Yanomami in South America, the Pygmies in Africa and the Dayak in Asia.

150 tribes live without contact with the outside world, but above all these are severely threatened by deforestation and flames and receive very little help from today's “modern” people from the outside world.

We can change the lives of primitive people and many unique animals, because in every second product we buy there is a piece of tropical rainforest. It really doesn't have to be! Together we can preserve this wonderful living space for a long time.

With this post, I would like to sensitize and draw people's attention to the topic of RAINFOREST, because orangutans, koala bears, large and small pandas, gorillas, toucans and large tribes of indigenous people are dying every day due to deforestation and slash-and-burn and climate change accelerates at a furious pace. It is our fault that the whole thing happens!

We buy palm oil, meat, soy and tropical fruits without end.

To access these raw materials, huge hectares are burned to make room for monocultures and cattle pastures.

We can and must avoid that if the rainforest animals mean something to us!