Numerous food plants, domestic animals, and medicines originated in these luxuriant wonderlands, and many local people still call them home. Some familiar forest products include rubber, waxes and lubricants, nuts and fruits, and bamboo and rattan. Equatorial forests protect the land by regulating rainfall. The foliage and limbs slow down torrential rains so that the protected ground can absorb water. Groundwater can then reenter soil layers without displacing topsoil.
Tropical forests stabilize the world's climate.
The trees reabsorb rainwater through their roots and then return vast amounts of moisture to the atmosphere through transpiration to form new rain clouds. These vapor blankets reflect heat into space to maintain a constant temperature below. Over half of Earth's tropical forests have disappeared or been altered by people. This year alone, an area about the size of the state of Florida will disappear. Disruptions in the water cycle have already caused climatic and land changes.