Helping to Save the Rainforest :: Environment Environmental Pollution Preservation

Helping to Save the Rainforest   Ã¢â‚¬Å"Save the Rainforest.†Ã‚   â€Å"Don’t bungle the jungle.†Ã‚   We’ve all heard these sayings time and time again, but when we are at the store, about to purchase a nice entertainment center for our TVs and stereos, â€Å"How can we be sure that our money is supporting our social and political concerns?†Ã‚   (Stark 1)   Our efforts to save the rainforest aren’t as clear as they may seem.   It is difficult to tell where wood comes from and where it is produced.   Ã¢â‚¬Å"There isn’t a way for the individual to identify a good wood from the bad, well-managed forests from ill managed, both domestically and tropically,† said Scott Landis, President of the Woodworkers Alliance for Rainforest Products (WARP), a non-profit organization of woodworkers, instrument makers and architects and designers.   Landis suggests that as consumers, we should educate ourselves about the sources of products they sell.   By looking around for signs and labels to see if they indicate responsible use of the rainforest and its products.   Without a better understanding of how the forest works, what influences it creates, dynamics and how resistant it is, there is little probability of any future for the few forests that still remain.   It will be very difficult to change public opinions or remove some of the pressures forests face without attending a program of education.   Some of the pressures on the rainforest, such as the rise of changing cultivation and population, come from hunger promoted by unequal ownership.   (Park 31)   I propose that the government in Brazil take nationalistic siege on all lumber exportation to foreign nations. Governments spend a lot of money trying to help the ecology if rainforests, but apparently there has been little luck.   According to Chris Park in Tropical Rainforests, â€Å"There have been numerous calls for major investment of time, money and trained personnel into research of rainforest ecosystems.   While scientific research in recent decades has revealed a great deal about this unique and highly complicated ecosystem, important questions are still unanswered.   There are still many gaps we need to know how to better understand the structure and ecology of rainforests.   About 93 percent of the land are owned by only seven percent of the landowners. (Park 130)   In Brazil, only one percent of the farms occupies over forty three percent of the total farmland, forcing half of the farms to be squeezed onto less than three percent of the land and leaving about seven million families without land.