Amazon Rainforest Research Paper

Deforestation has been clearing the earth’s forested lands on a large scale, usually resulting in damage to the quality of the lands. The meaning of deforestation is the permanent destruction of forests in order to make the land available for other uses. Even though there is a decrease in trees, rain forests still cover about 30% to 40% of the earth’s land area. Majority of Earth’s rainforests are in Southern America. While the rest of the rainforests are mostly in South Africa, doctors and shamans have found rainforest remedies that could help fight cancer. Those people find them in plants that are in the rainforests. It is not beneficial for companies in South America to cut down these trees/plants in rainforests.

Rainforests in South America

About 25% of the ingredients used in western medicine come from the Amazon rainforest (“The Disappearing Rainforests”). While many trees and plants remained unidentified, it makes sense to accept that many more have value to healing and medicine than there is known about. In the United States, there is a National Cancer Institute and they have discovered 3,000 plants that are active against cancer cells, 70% of those cancer fighting plants are found in rainforests (Mowrey, Daniel). The Amazon rainforest is known by a nickname, “Lungs of the Planet”(The Disappearing Rainforests). It was given this nickname because the Amazon’s rainforest provides greater than 20% of the Earth’s oxygen needs (The Disappearing

that were involved in trying to find new cures or drugs from plants (World Deforestation Slows down as More Forests Are Better Managed). Today the U.S. has over 100 pharmaceutical companies and some of the US government branches and The National Cancer Institute. They are all intrigued in plant research for new drugs and cures for viruses, infections, cancer, and even AIDS (The Disappearing Rainforests). Many of the foods consumed in the world come from the Amazon rainforest. Such foods include fruits, nuts, rice, coffee, vegetables, corn, spices and many others. Even though companies in South America are cutting down trees and plants, entire communities and tribes have been harvesting fruits like bananas, pineapples, and tomatoes; vegetables and including Brazil nuts. Just by having this new income source, it’s creating awareness for these entire communities and tribes in the rainforests to be protected and preserve their forests for long-term profits for themselves and is making this an important resolution in saving the tropical rainforests from