The Amazon Rain Forest is one of the world s greatest natural resources, it is still being destroyed. Rain Forests are destroyed for the profits they yield. However, if medicinal plants, fruits, nuts, oils and other resources like rubber and chocolate are harvested sustainably, Rain Forest land has much more value than if it is cut for timber or burned for cattle ranches. As well, in order to harvest these resources sustainably, indigenous and rural peoples of the Amazon would be employed, and indeed, indigenous people s empirical plant knowledge is believed to be the Amazon s new gold. Biodiversity refers to the millions of different genes, plants, animals and ecosystems that make up life on our planet.
Human beings depend on biodiversity for such basic necessities as food, medicine, and energy.
We think there are around 50 million plant and animal species on earth, but with industrial exploitation of natural resources about 17,000 species are being destroyed each year. Tropical Rain Forests, which are the most genetically diverse places on earth, are being destroyed at an alarming rate. In the Northwestern Amazon alone, indigenous people use 1,300 plant species to create their own wilderness drugs. The Amazon is one of the largest remaining tropical forest in the world, and it contains about a third of all the plant and animal species on the planet. The indigenous people, who have been living sustainably in these forests for thousands of years, have a detailed knowledge of the plant and animal life of the forest.