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Protecting rain forests

The decision made by a state government in Brazil to throw a protective net around an unprecedented 37 million acres of rain forest in biodiversity-rich Amazonia is a wonderfully far-sighted move. The seven new protected areas in Para state (a region that has witnessed steady commercial exploitation) have been created in partnership with credentialed organisations such as Conservation International and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The destruction of rain forests round the world over the past three decades on account of logging, mining, and expansion of agriculture to feed a global market is a matter of deep concern. Dense rain forests contain the highest number of species, many of them endemics (found nowhere else), for a given land area; their existence and good health is critical to preserving the world's biodiversity. What is more, they help contain a sharp increase in global warming. The destruction of these forests releases carbon dioxide stored in the trees and thereby adds to greenhouse gas emissions. Keeping the forests healthy, by contrast, helps absorb carbon emissions.

India is among the few countries endowed with rain forest hot spots, in the Western Ghats and the Northeast. It is well established that these forests contribute to the stability of the country's climate and harbour magnificent biodiversity, which has not been fully documented yet. Many plant and animal species are unique to particular areas of these forests and any loss of these will be catastrophic and permanent. The rain forests of the Western Ghats are known to be the exclusive habitat of many amphibians (93 species), birds (16 species), reptiles (130 species), and some mammals; many more common species are also found here. Rain forests, which constitute a small part of about two per cent of the land area in India under relatively good forest cover, are facing fragmentation and mounting development pressures. They may also be subjected to new stresses caused by climate change in coming decades. The Brazil example shows that rain forest protection is a long-term responsibility for preservation of species for scientific and cultural reasons and for the wider economic benefits conferred by healthy ecosystems. That there is active citizen support and funding to preserve rain forests within a scientific framework should encourage governments to do more. India's rain forests need strong legal protection of the kind initiated by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Only then can surrounding buffer forests retain their flora and fauna to sustain communities and tribes in traditional ways.

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