Urgency
Germany Takes Lead in Saving Ecuador's Rainforest
Oil companies are salivating over the supply of black gold beneath Ecuador's rainforest. The South American country is pledging to keep the oil in the ground -- if the international community provides compensation. Now Germany has taken a leading role in raising the necessary cash. There are many attributes which make the Yasuni National Park special: It is one of the most bio-diverse places on the planet, it is home to indigenous tribes which hunt and gather in its remote interior, and there's a unique breed of small bat. But the national park also has a geographic curse: It sits atop Ecuador's largest known oil reserve, thought to contain hundreds of millions of barrels.
And this potential fortune threatens its very future. In response,
Ecuador has come up with an unusual plan to safeguard the UNESCO
biosphere Reserve. The cash-strapped South American country has pledged
to leave the oil in the ground forever -- something unheard of among
oil nations -- if the international community compensates for some of
the lost income.
Ethiopia is King of Reforestation
The Billion Tree Campaign has passed
the four billion mark, in a crucial step towards its target of seven
billion trees planted by the end of 2009.
The milestone was reached following confirmation from the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture that an additional 687 million trees were planted in 2008 under the country's nationwide tree planting campaign - part of the one billion trees that were planted over the last 52 days.
The total has also been boosted by individual tree planting efforts by people around the world taking part in a global tree planting drive for World Environment Day, a hands-on way for communities to urge world leaders to "seal the deal" at the crucial UN climate change talks in Copenhagen in December.
Today's Mass Extinction: The Call of Life
Get Adobe Flash Player hereImportant Project: The Prince of Wales introduces his rainforests project
HRH The Prince of Wales presents an introduction to The Prince's Rainforests Project, his new charity dedicated to the cause of finding a way to ensure that tropical rainforests are worth more standing than cut down. Here he welcomes viewers to his website, http://www.princesrainforestsproject.org , outlines his reasons for starting the project, explains what is at stake and why time is of the essence.
The Importance of Rainforests
The beauty, majesty, and timelessness of a primary rainforest are
indescribable. It is impossible to capture on film, to describe in words, or to
explain to those who have never had the awe-inspiring experience of standing in
the heart of a primary rainforest.
Rainforests have evolved over millions of years to turn into the
incredibly complex environments they are today. Rainforests represent a store
of living and breathing renewable natural resources that for eons, by virtue of
their richness in both animal and plant species, have contributed a wealth of
resources for the survival and well-being of humankind. These resources have
included basic food supplies, clothing, shelter, fuel, spices, industrial raw
materials, and medicine for all those who have lived in the majesty of the
forest. However, the inner dynamics of a tropical rainforest is an intricate
and fragile system. Everything is so interdependent that upsetting one part can
lead to unknown damage or even destruction of the whole. Sadly, it has taken
only a century of human intervention to destroy what nature designed to last
forever.
