The fires have devastated the Amazon and the news of the lung of the Earth in flames has gone around the world (albeit with some delay). Yet deforestation is affecting the countries of West Africa and the Congo Basin the most, but this is even less talked about.

 

Tropical forests are biomes that grow in equatorial zones, i.e. in areas where high temperatures (between 20 and 28 ° C) and heavy rainfall (2000-4000 mm per year) throughout the year, allow the vegetation to remain always green.

 

These forests are found in Latin America, where we find the largest tropical forest in the world, the Amazon rainforest, in Africa and Asia.
Although they occupy “only” 7% of the land, tropical forests contain more than half of all animal and plant species in the world. This means that the number of animals and plants housed in 1 km2 of the tropical forest is much higher than the number of animals and plants found in 1 km2 in any other European forest: biodiversity in these forests is very high.

The greatest enemy of tropical forests is man.

 

Deforestation is one of the main problems facing tropical forests: not only the plants, but also the animals that live there are in serious danger. More than half of the world’s tropical forests have been irreparably destroyed. It is important to realize that it is especially in the last thirty years that forests have lost a large part of their trees.
The main cause of deforestation is of human origin. In fact, man deforests for various reasons, but mainly for the needs of wood and to make room for agricultural fields and fields for pastures.

 

 

BIOMA: Set of plants, animals, fungi and bacteria that have found a balance with each other and with the climate in which they live and which therefore live in harmony, constituting an ecosystem and a vast bioclimatic area.

 

Presented by Romano Pisciotti