The Rainforest Game
presents... Rainforest Facts!

We rely on rainforests in ways that we are only just beginning to understand. We do know that rainforests play a significant role in maintaining weather patterns and the Earth's limited supply of fresh water. We also know that natural elements and species from the rainforest are the basis of countless consumer, agricultural, medical, and industrial products. Rainforests are home to more species of plants and animals than any other ecosystem on Earth.
 
Unfortunately, we are losing these vast biological treasures at an alarming rate. Here are some facts that illustrate the need to help preserve Earth's greatest natural resource:

• Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface; now they cover just 6% and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years.
    

• Rainforests provide the essential environmental service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. More than 20 percent of the earth's oxygen is produced by the Amazon Rainforest. 
    

• Over one-fifth of the world's fresh water supply is located in the Amazon Basin.
    

• At least 42 million acres of tropical forest are lost each year, an area the size of Washington State. This equates to about 100 acres a minute.
    

• More than half of the world's estimated 10 million species of plants, animals and insects live in the tropical rainforests. 
    

• An estimated 50,000 species of plants and animals, mostly plants and invertebrates and mostly in the tropics, are condemned to extinction every year, an average of about 140 a day.
    

• The U.S. National Cancer Institute has identified 3000 plants that are active against cancer cells. 70% of these plants are found in the rainforest. 
    

• Nearly 25% of the active ingredients in today's cancer-fighting drugs come from organisms found only in the rainforest.
    

• At least 80% of the developed world's diet originated in the tropical rainforest. At least 3000 fruits are found in the rainforests; of these only 200 are now in use in the Western World.
    

• In 1983, there were no U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturers involved in research programs to discover new drugs or cures from plants. Today, over 100 pharmaceutical companies are engaged in plant research projects.
    

• Statistics show that rainforest land converted to cattle operations yields $60 per acre. If timber is harvested, the land is worth $400 per acre. However, if these renewable and sustainable resources are harvested, the land will yield the land owner $2,400 per acre.
    

• Purchasing sustainable rainforest products can effect positive change by creating a market for these products and provides the economic incentives and alternatives to cutting the forest just for the value of its timber.
         

Help preserve our rainforests, order HRDQ's Rainforest Game today!