Our Tropical Rainforest

by. Iman Brotoseno

These are more than 17,500 islands in Indonesia, strechted out along the equator like green, ruby and bronze beads of an exquisite necklace. These islands are endowed with vast biological diversity, and approximately one third of the huge number of spieces found on them are endemic. Indonesia stil has one of the largets remaining tropical rainforest in the world, many of which are managed as conservation area. Unfotunately these gifts from nature have been greatly damaged by three decades of exploitation.Indonesia's forests are being degraded and destroyed by logging, mining operations and large-scale agricultural plantations, and from time to time the regime of government always blame the indigenous and local people for shifting agriculture and cutting for fuelwood. I don’t believe that colonization, and subsistence activities cause a major problem of this issue. Their culture is to maintain close links between nature and life as they believe nature will protect them.

Logging for tropical timbers and pulpwood is the best-known cause of forest loss and degradation in the country. Indonesia is the world's largest exporter of tropical timber, generating upwards of US$5 billion annually, and more than 48 million hectares (55 percent of the country's remaining forests) are concessioned for logging. Logging in Indonesia has opened some of the most remote, forbidding places on earth to development. But do you know that 75 % of logging in Indonesia is illegal. Despite an official ban on the export of raw logs from Indonesia, timber is regularly smuggled to Malaysia, Singapore, and other Asian countries. This crime to our forest cause terrible damage, according to World bank data in 2002, every 12 seconds we lost 5000 meter square of tropical rain forest. Indonesia has a biggest contributor in the world as a forest destroyer by erasing 2 percent of its tropical rainforest. Between 1990 and 2005 the country lost more than 28 million hectares of forest, including 21.7 hectares of virgin forest. Its loss of biologically rich primary forest was second only to Brazil during that period, and since the close of the 1990s, deforestation rates of primary forest cover have climbed 26 percent. Today Indonesia's forests are some of the most threatened on the planet. Rainforest cover has steadily declined since the 1960s when 82 percent of the country was covered with forest, to 68 percent in 1982, to 53 percent in 1995, and 49 percent today. Much of this remaining cover consists of logged-over and degraded forest.

The effects from forest loss have been widespread, off course it will affect the global climate as tropical rainforest is actually a world’ s lung. Forest management in Indonesia has long been plagued by corruption. Underpaid government officials combined with the prevalence of disreputable businessmen and shifty politicians, mean logging bans go unenforced, trafficking in endangered species is overlooked, environmental regulations are ignored, parks are used as timber farms, and fines and prison sentences never come to pass. Even the campaigns was launched to raise the awareness, I strongly feel this more to lips service of our government as I believe in NATO ( Not action talk only ) policy. We Indonesia's forests face a discouragingly grim future. And as I write this issues for more than 5 minutes, we loss again 125,000 meter square of our tropical rainforest. So how do you help our mother nature?

Article Source: www.imanbrotoseno.blogspot.com/2007/10/our-tropical-rainforest-these-are-more.html

More on Rainforest Services

It goes without saying that the two services we’ve described above are of crucial importance. 
But let’s take a closer look at the uses of tropical rain forests.

A. Rain Forests As Habitats 

For thousands of years, rain forests had been home for all the life forms residing in them, including animals and humans (forest (indigenous) people). 
 
Animals had been utilizing their natural habitats as their needs guided them (by “taking” whatever they needed from their environment (such as food) and “giving back” in some other way (for example, by becoming “food” for some larger predators). 

Forest people, on their part, had been historically using rain forest resources in very sustainable ways (6) – the knowledge they had been gathering over centuries from their ancestors and transferring to their offspring. 

In most recent times (the last several decades) rain forests have also become home to many new peasant settlers / migrants who moved to their new habitats as a result of their governments’ resettlement programmes, in search of new land for agricultural purposes. (7)

B. Rain Forests As Resource Bases 

Following on from the discussion of biodiversity above, it is no surprise that the tropical rain forests are sometimes referred to as an "inexhaustible treasure trove" of nature. (8) 

We can distinguish three major groups of goods that come from the rain forests: 
- food 
- medicines/drugs 
- commercial/industrial goods 

Since the middle ages, tropical rain forests attracted the attention of many European travellers. 

The large-scale exploitation of rain forest resources must have started as one of by-products of the industrial revolution in Europe in the 18 th – 19 th centuries. 

Rubber was one of the rain forest’s most prominent products, which indeed found many uses in newly born industrial societies. And perhaps, one of its most famous applications was for rubber tyres which were originally used in bicycles, and consequently in motor cars. (9) 

As for the foodstuffs, you wouldn’t believe how much food that we consume every day originated from the rain forests. 
Vanilla and cacao beans (used to make chocolate), for example, were discovered during the very early voyages of the conquistadors to the Americas. (10) 
It is hard to overestimate the importance of rain forest food products in modern times. 
Chris Park mentions that about 12 crops provide 90% of the world’s food and half of them come from tropical rain forests including rice and maize. (11) 
Even the domestic chicken was apparently bred from the red jungle fowl of Indian forests. (12) 
Products like coffee, bananas, tea, sugar, pineapples, avocados and a lot more are widely used both for local consumption in the rain forest home countries and for exports. 
Currently, a vast number of rain forest plants are also widely used in medicines. (13)

The “most lucrative” rain forest resources

There is virtually no doubt that, historically, logging had been the most lucrative business activity in the tropical rain forests. This activity allows an accumulation of short-term profits without substantial long-term investments from logging companies. 
In the most recent years, relative political and economic stability of rain forest countries allowed for the development of other extractive industries, such as mining and oil & gas. (14) 
All these activities have inevitably caused, and are still causing, serious environmental damage. 
Specifically, this leads to deforestation of pristine ancient rain forest ecosystems and an irreversible loss of valuable forest biodiversity.

C. Rain Forests As Unique Guarantors Of Local Environmental/Climatic Stability

Apart from helping to regulate the global climatic conditions, rain forests also guarantee local environmental stability in several ways. 
What happens if rain forests are removed?

1. Soil Erosion 
Rain forest soils are quite poor in nutrients, as virtually all of them are contained within the forest vegetation and animal biomass (thanks to the very efficient nutrient cycling within the forests). 
So if a forest is cleared, the soil is fully exposed to heavy rainfalls that can easily wash away the topsoil and degrade the soil quality. 
Once the topsoil is away, it leaves the deeper soil layers exposed to the air. The air hardens the deeper soil and degrades it even further. 
Thus, such degraded soil can hardly be used for any productive activity.

2. Downstream silting 
As the rainfalls wash away the rain forest soil, they can push such sediments to rivers, water reservoirs and irrigation systems and leave them silted. 
This can cause contamination of drinkable water as well as interruption of operations of hydroelectric installations. 
Higher river silt levels can also expose river-neighbouring areas to floods. 

3. Downstream flooding 
As a result of deforestation a larger proportion of rainfall, that would have otherwise been absorbed by the vegetation, is now directly transferred into river systems and may cause serious flooding in river-neighbouring areas. 

4. Droughts 
Rain forest vegetation stores a lot of moisture that evaporates and comes back as rainfall. 
If this natural storage of moisture is destroyed, less rainfall is recycled and droughts ensue. 
As an example, experts blame such rain forest clearance for recent droughts in Australia. (16) 

5. Rain Forests Help Reduce the Amount of Solar Radiation Reflected Back Into the Atmosphere 
When solar radiation reaches the surface of the Earth, some of this radiation is absorbed by the planet and some of it is reflected back into space. 
Some of this radiation reflected back will actually escape into space, and some of it will get trapped in the atmosphere. 
A certain proportion of the radiation trapped in the atmosphere will then be re-reflected down to the planet and thus force the temperature to rise. 
This is called a greenhouse effect, and it causes global warming. 
So the importance of the rain forest vegetation from this point of view is that it helps reduce the amount of solar radiation reflected back into the atmosphere and therefore helps keep the temperatures stable.

Article Source:  www.tropical-rainforest-animals.com/Tropical-Rain-Forests.html

Tropical Rain Forests Why We All Have A Big Stake In Them

What is the real value of tropical forests? By now, you may have heard a lot about the two most important and commonly recognized services that tropical rain forests provide to the humanity:

• They regulate global climate patterns and help mitigate negative effects of climate change, specifically, global climate warming, (Service 1), and

• They serve as storages of global biodiversity, specifically plant and animal diversity (Service 2). 
  
  

Those are the two main factors that have been widely put forward as the arguments which are strong enough for us people to try to do our utmost to “save the rain forests” from their continuous destruction.

Rain Forest Service 1 – Regulating Climate Patterns 

There is a strong interdependent relationship between the climate and the tropical rain forests. 

On the one hand , favourable local climatic conditions determine the existence of rain forests in principle in a certain location.

For example, true tropical rain forests can only exist in geographical locations with “continuous supply” of rainfall and sunshine. Such locations are mostly found in the geographical areas around the equator. 

On the other hand , rain forests affect the global climatic conditions by acting as pollution filters / “carbon sinks” / “lungs of the earth”. 

Rain forest trees absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) and produce oxygen back into the atmosphere, by way of photosynthesis. (3) 

In very simple terms, such carbon absorption by rain forests helps reduce the amount of CO2 that could otherwise be released into the Earth’s atmosphere and cause global warming. (4) 

Rain Forest Service 2 – Biodiversity 

Biodiversity (biological diversity) is defined as a number and variety of plant and animal species in a certain habitat. 

We know that tropical rain forests have the highest levels of biodiversity, as compared to any other place in the world. 

For example, from one of the UN Chronicle issues we learn that a 2,500-acre area of a typical tropical rain forest is home to some 1,500 species of flowering plants, 750 species of trees, 400 species of birds and 150 different species of butterflies. (5) 

In another example, check out some facts about the Ecuador rainforest, one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. 
 
Rain forests are home to a large number of endangered animals, such as the mountain gorilla, which are crucial components of tropical biodiversity. 

But why is it so important for us to preserve biodiversity as much as we only can? 

From the utilitarian point of view, the common answer to that question is: 

If we continue to lose biodiversity, we are going to lose out on potential discoveries of new foodstuffs, medicines, industrial raw materials. 

This is not to mention the fact that it would be nice for the human race to allow other life forms, that comprise biodiversity as such, to live peacefully, just because they already exist.

Article Source:  www.tropical-rainforest-animals.com/Tropical-Rain-Forests.html

Be Part Of The Rainforest

by. Donna L. Watkins

I am in love with a place called La Selva Biological Station which is located in the Caribbean lowlands northeast of San Jose, the capital city of the country of Costa Rica. Currently I'm visiting for the second time having "discovered" it last year while I was in Costa Rica for an immersion language school.

La Selva is covered with tropical pre-montane wet forest which we call rainforest. There is no better place in Costa Rica, and one of few places in the world, to learn about this endangered ecosystem. Species diversity is spectacular, including more than 1,850 species of plants, 350 species of trees, 503 species of birds (there are 886 in the country), and approximately 500 species of ants.

The first time I visited last year, I read about the La Selva's Adopt-a-Trail Program. I knew I wanted to be part of it. The funds go directly to La Selva's trail maintenance and environmental education. La Selva gets much needed funding and you get your name on a trail marker.

There's no administration fees taken out, your $200 donation does $200 worth of improvement and teaching that will not only affect today and this year, but will provide improvement through generations to come by being able to educate others in the hope of creating a vision within them for preserving our fragile world.

We can make a difference whether we can be here or not ... and for those who may never get to a rainforest, it's a tribute to your love for the planet to be part of it. It's a living contribution to the future because our planet's rainforests have a major role to play for the entire earth. For me, it's being a steward of Creation.

In The Beginning
Last year when I knew I wanted to be part of this, I instantly thought of a marker deep in the jungle, thinking our names out there in a piece of jungle would bring part of the jungle into a piece of my soul even at a great distance away. 

But, after much pondering, I chose a spot that was in the Leslie Holdridge Arboretum. I felt it represented Genesis in a fashion - "in the beginning, God ..." Think of all the species that God created. His desire was for diversity also and it was created for our enjoyment. Scientifically we now know that it was created to benefit and preserve the planet's atmosphere, which is why it's important to save it.

About 75% of La Selva is covered in some of the most pristine old growth tropical rainforest in Costa Rica. The arboretum is in one of the previous cacao plantations and contains 254 species of trees from all over the reserve. The trees are tagged for easy identification. The purpose of the arboretum is to have an example of all the tree species in La Selva represented in the reserve.

Wide Paths For Education
This year I figured I'd get my deep jungle location, but was led to choose a marker only 200 meters from the central area, and on one of the two widest trails. It's still dense rainforest, as you can see .. just not deep into the jungle.

What it represented to me was 'wide paths for education' because I imagined groups of people whose soul and spirit have been switched on to the importance of preservation and conservation. With education the masses can understand the importance of our tropical rainforests to the entire planet.

Adopt-a-Trail Program
The Adopt-a-Trail Program is an exciting way to be part of making a difference daily, even when I can't be here to experience it. I have often said that La Selva is my favorite place on all the earth, and I've been blessed to have traveled around the world and to 47 of our United States. There's something mysteriously wonderful at La Selva, and I think it's God's presence amidst a preserved old-growth forest. God is said to have a "still, small voice" so it's a place where it's easy to hear it. The incredible diversity of plant and animal species ... well, it's a little bit like the Garden of Eden ... and in my mind, a vision of what Heaven will be like.

Sponsor a piece of salvation for the planet through La Selva's Adopt-a-Trail Program or learn more about La Selva Biological Station.

Article Source:  www.thenatureinus.com/2009/03/be-part-of-rainforest.html

Keeping the Rainforest Tropical

When one method posed problems, mechanical engineers turned to an alternate technology to make patrons and animals comfortable at the zoo.

a rainforest may not leap to mind when one thinks of Cleveland, but the fact that one can associate the two words is largely due to mechanical engineering and the flexibility the discipline often contains.

Without state-of-the-art HVAC technology, it's doubtful that this unique tropical habitat—located within the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo complex—could exist, and it continues to benefit from equipment improvements, such as advanced motor and drive design.

The RainForest at the zoo near Lake Erie contains two acres of plants and wildlife similar to those found in rainforests around the world. Each year, more than a million visitors come to this two-story, domed, simulated biosphere to experience what it's like walking through tropical regions of Central America, Africa, or Asia—and see some 600 animals in a natural setting, including birds, monkeys, reptiles, and colorful fish that ply lagoons, swamps, and warm rivers.

Despite wide swings in temperature and humidity on the Great Lakes, visitors and inhabitants of the RainForest enjoy a nearly constant 76°F and 76 percent humidity. This is due to the robust HVAC system that has evolved over the years.

Direct Air Systems Inc., with locations in Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, working in conjunction with Zesco Inc., specialists in electrical-mechanical motion control and based in Cleveland, provide HVAC service to the RainForest.

The RainForest has two air handler units that are 100 percent outside air. To provide and maintain optimum environmental conditions for the facility, Direct Air Systems installed SEMCO energy wheel systems for the units, one of which has a throughput of 60,000 cfm used primarily for cooling. The other unit, rated at 40,000 cfm, has a preheater and humidifier rack. Both units have side-by-side, 10-foot-diameter, 1,000-pound dry desiccant heat wheels, which are necessary to conserve 18,000 pounds of water every day, transferring moisture from the RainForest's stale exhaust air and giving it to the dry outside airstream once every 2.5 hours. 

bringing in fresh air 

The term "desiccant" refers to material bonded to the surface of the heat wheels. The desiccant collects moisture and odors, which are exhausted out of the building from the upper portion of the wheels. 

The wheels rotate anywhere from seven to 18 times a minute, depending on the humidity level. Fresh air, referred to as "process air," is drawn in by the same wheels. 

The fresh air's temperature and humidity are moderated by the wheels' slow revolution and the fact that the wheels' mass and desiccant surface transfers a portion of the heat and moisture collected from the interior. Heaters, when necessary, warm the air before it passes to the RainForest's spacious interior, which has more than 60 temperature zones, including those for offices, a cafeteria, and gift shops.

Rather than being roof-mounted and exposed to the elements, as is commonly done with air handling units, the ones serving the RainForest are built into the facility to maintain unit efficiency that would otherwise be lost in Cleveland's warm summers and cold winters.

The desiccant process was selected for both efficiency and simplicity. It was concluded that boilers, Z-ducts, heat pipes, or other methods did not compare to the 85-percent efficiency the heat wheels provide. Additionally, heat wheels are fairly simple to operate. The thinking was that the simpler the fundamental mechanical equipment, the greater the reliability and ease of maintenance. That proved to be the case—up to a point. While the technology should have worked flawlessly, a nagging problem developed.

Each wheel rotates with a custom-fabricated, 31-foot-long belt and, when first installed, was equipped with a one-horsepower ac electric motor rated for 1,750 rpm, and a mechanical gearbox to provide a 5:1 gear reduction.

At the time of installation, this was a fairly common equipment configuration. However, it was discovered that mechanical gearboxes used for the RainForest were failing at an alarming rate. 

picking up the pace 

The difficulty was finally identified. It dealt with the revolutions per minute. The pace was too slow for the gearboxes' splash lubricating systems to properly engage. As a result, parts were not being properly oiled and were wearing out prematurely.

Direct Air Systems thought about its experiences with other HVAC applications and mentioned to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo maintenance team an ac drive/ac motor solution that didn't require gearboxes. This was becoming an increasingly common arrangement and had a good track record. It was also state-of-the-art technology, moving away from the problems and complexities that moving-parts mechanisms presented.

"When we saw we weren't getting too far with the gearbox-lubrication issue, we turned to equipment that was available to us—now," Steve Snyder, president of Direct Air Systems, explained. "The direct torque approach we recommended was something that would be cost-effective, easy to maintain, and simple in its operation. Gear lubrication would not be an issue. Plus, direct torque is proven engineering. The Cleveland Metroparks sought bids for the project, as it is a public agency, and our bid was selected."

The retrofit involved ABB's Direct Torque Control solution, which uses the ac motor's torque as the primary control element.

The original one-hp ac motor and gearbox equipment in each of the energy wheel systems was removed and replaced with an ABB 5-hp induction motor/ac low-voltage drive combination. This arrangement allows the motor to be connected directly to the load without the need for a gearbox or pulse encoder. The ABB solution allows full motor torque down to zero speed.

Through the use of an algorithm, the ABB drives, in this case variable speed ACS models, can run without an encoder to provide speed feedback. The algorithm enables the drive to calculate the state of the motor's torque and flux 40,000 times per second. Elimination of the encoder further reduces maintenance and decreases downtime.

Although each energy wheel system is controlled by individual Johnson Controls systems, the status of the motors and drives is monitored by the RainForest's comprehensive Johnson Controls building management system.

In the event of a control failure, the ABB ACS drives are designed to go automatically to a preset rpm rate, to ensure that heat transfer is maintained. Spare motors are on hand at the RainForest and drives are kept at Direct Air Systems' office location, minutes away from the facility.

Since the installation of the ABB motor/drive combination more than four years ago, there has been no interruption in service. Direct Air Systems is seeing increasing use of direct torque control.

"It is definitely one of the approaches we recommend," Snyder explained. "Often there is more than one way to solve a problem. The Direct Torque Control method proved to be a good solution. It has three characteristics that we like: It's cost-effective, simple, and reliable."

Article Source: www.memagazine.org/backissues/membersonly/mar07/features/rainfore/rainfore.html

Tropical Forests - Earth's Air Conditioner

ScienceDaily (Apr. 13, 2007) — Planting and protecting trees--which trap and absorb carbon dioxide as they grow--can help to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But a new study suggests that, as a way to fight global warming, the effectiveness of this strategy depends heavily on where these trees are planted. In particular, tropical forests are very efficient at keeping the Earth at a happy, healthy temperature.

The researchers, including Ken Caldeira of Carnegie's Department of Global Ecology and Govindasamy Bala at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, found that because tropical forests store large amounts of carbon and produce reflective clouds, they are especially good at cooling the planet. In contrast, forests in snowy areas can warm the Earth, because their dark canopy absorbs sunlight that would otherwise be reflected back to space by a bright white covering of snow.

The work simulates the effects of large-scale deforestation, and accounts for the positive and negative climate effects of tree cover at different latitudes. The result, which appears in this week's early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, makes a strong case for protecting and restoring tropical forests.

"Tropical forests are like Earth's air conditioner," Caldeira said. "When it comes to rehabilitating forests to fight global warming, carbon dioxide might be only half of the story; we also have to account for whether they help to reflect sunlight by producing clouds, or help to absorb it by shading snowy tundra."

Forests in colder, sub-polar latitudes evaporate less water and are less effective at producing clouds. As a result, the main climate effect of these forests is to increase the absorption of sunlight, which can overwhelm the cooling effect of carbon storage.

However, Caldeira believes it would be counterproductive to cut down forests in snowy areas, even if it could help to combat global warming. "A primary reason we are trying to slow global warming is to protect nature," he explains. "It just makes no sense to destroy natural ecosystems in the name of saving natural ecosystems."

Article Source:  www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070409181831.htm

Cleaning The Atmosphere Of Carbon: African Forests Out Of Balance

ScienceDaily (Mar. 2, 2009) — Tropical forests hold more living biomass than any other terrestrial ecosystem. A new report in the journal Nature by Lewis et al. shows that not only do trees in intact African tropical forests hold a lot of carbon, they hold more carbon now than they did 40 years ago--a hopeful sign that tropical forests could help to mitigate global warming.

In a companion article, Helene Muller-Landau, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, says that understanding the causes of this African forest carbon sink and projecting its future is anything but straightforward.

Growing trees absorb carbon. Dead, decomposing trees release carbon. Researchers expect growth and death to approximately balance each other out in mature, undisturbed forests, and thus for total tree carbon stocks, the carbon held by the trees, to remain approximately constant. Yet Lewis and colleagues discovered that on average each hectare (100 x 100 meters, or 2.2 acres) of apparently mature, undisturbed African forest was increasing in tree carbon stocks by an amount equal to the weight of a small car each year. Previous studies have shown that Amazonian forests also take up carbon, although at somewhat lower rates.

"If you assume that these forests should be in equilibrium, then the best way to explain why trees are growing bigger is anthropogenic global change – the extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could essentially be acting as fertilizer." says Muller-Landau, "But it's also possible that tropical forests are still growing back following past clearing or fire or other disturbance. Given increasing evidence that tropical forests have a long history of human occupation, recovery from past disturbance is almost certainly part of the reason these forests are taking up carbon today."

Muller-Landau, who directs a project to monitor carbon budgets in forest study sites worldwide as part of the Smithsonian's Center for Tropical Forest Science and the HSBC Climate Partnership, advises that this newfound sink shouldn't be taken for granted, or presumed to continue indefinitely. "While we still can't explain exactly what is behind this carbon sink, one thing we know for sure is that it can't be a sink forever. Trees and forests just can't keep getting bigger. Tropical forests are buying us a bit more time right now, but we can't count on them to continue to offset our carbon emissions in the future."

Article Source:  www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090219105322.htm