“Today I am launching the website for my Rainforests Project. On it are three films, together with the findings of some new research. The films, which The Daily Telegraph is hosting on its website today make use of compelling images from the world’s rainforests, as well as animation, to describe some of the stark facts and implications of tropical deforestation. In a little less than my lifetime, we have lost 50 per cent of the world’s rainforests.
Every year, 32 million acres – an area the size of England – is destroyed or degraded. The message is clear: our world is in grave danger of losing its life-support system. These forests, which straddle the equator in a belt around the world, contain not only some of the richest biodiversity known to science, which is crucial to human health and survival in the future, but are also home to millions of the world’s poorest people, whose livelihoods depend on them.
They also play a crucial role in cooling and cleaning the atmosphere and providing fresh water and rainfall. At a time when shortages of food are being experienced the world over and population continues to rise, this rainfall is more important than ever before. Amazonia’s forests alone, for instance, help to store the largest body of flowing freshwater on the planet, and they release 20 billion tonnes of water vapour into the atmosphere every day.â€