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This is a site created by the Rainforest Action Network that has extensive information about rainforests, indigenous peoples, biodiversity, and how all of this is at risk from current rainforest depletion levels. Rainforestweb.org was created as a tool for concerned citizens, companies and institutions to conveniently access the most complete and current information about rainforests, through one umbrella site. Created by Rainforest Action Network, Rainforestweb.org offers a comprehensive and informative view of the state of our world's rainforests through diverse postings and links. This is a great place to start for an easy to read overview of all the issues surrounding global rainforest depletion, as well as information on how to get involved in preventing it.
These pages from Raintree Nutrition Inc. give an overview of rainforest ecology and biodiversity, and the consequences of their global destruction. Raintree Nutrition is a Texas based company that markets rainforest grown medicines and promotes sustainable use of rainforest products. Since it's inception in 1995, Raintree has been the leader in creating a world market for the important medicinal plants of the Amazon Rainforest. Today, millions of acres of government owned, privately held, NGO controlled, and Indian demarcated lands in the Amazon are demonstrating through Raintree's harvesting programs, that wild-harvesting medicinal plants on rainforest land provides greater income and profits to the land owner and country than any other unsustainable land usage. Raintree's harvesting programs competes successfully and directly with other interests in the rainforest like timber logging and results in higher profits for the land while still preserving its biodiversity instead of destroying it. Thus, they are demonstrating that the economic incentive and encouragement necessary to protect the rainforest for future generations can work, and is working to protect rainforest lands today.
Sustainable Agriculture and the Environment in the Humid Tropics (NAS, 1993) Rain forests are rapidly being cleared in the humid tropics to keep pace with food demands, economic needs, and population growth. Without proper management, these forests and other natural resources will be seriously depleted within the next 50 years. This book from the National Research Council (NRC) arm of the National Academy of Sciences discusses the global loss of rainforest and it's impacts on biodiversity and indigenous communities, and also provides options for sustainable management. It includes practical discussions of following: 12 major land use options for boosting food production and enhancing local economies while protecting the natural resource base, recommendations for developing technologies needed for sustainable agriculture, a strategy for changing policies that discourage conserving and managing natural resources and biodiversity, and detailed reports on agriculture and deforestation in seven tropical countries.
Mammal species richness and habitat use in rainforest and abandoned agricultural fields in Chiapas, Mexico (MedellÍN, RA & M. Equihua. 1998. Journal of Applied Ecology, 35 (1), pp. 13-23) This paper from MedellÍN & Equihua of the Instituto de Ecología, Mexico, examines the use of small, isolated cornfields embedded in a large forest matrix as an appropriate compromise between conservation and sustainable development in a rainforest region on Chiapas, Mexico, showing that such management strategies can, and do, allow for sustainable use without large impacts on biodiversity.
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