Tropical Rainforests Bibliographic Review

Abstract

Preindustrial societies used forests as a source of energy and of construction materials and for recreation, being the hunt preserves (of European aristocracy) one of the first actions taken to, in somehow, safeguard the forests. The expansion of European colonial potencies and the overseas trade led to a valuation of timber, which was crucial in ship-building, and to a widespread clearance of temperate forests. The process of industrialisation converted forests in the source of charcoal to the emergent steam engines. Nowadays, the forests of developed countries, although very reduced when measured against its “original” extension, seem to have started to increase. Although the regrowth of forestlands, which seems to result from more efficient forest management policies, a decrease of biodiversity has been felt. At the present time in developing countries, forests are performing an analogous function in the development of these countries. Forests are, in these regions, under great pressures resulting from the fact that they are the support for the activities of very poor rural communities. Forestlands are being converted to agricultural land and cash crops and forest fragmentation is being the result of activities such as: mining, logging, and roads building. However, post-industrial societies, especially the wealthier ones, are valuing other goods and services provided by forests: hiking, bird-watching, ecotourism, survival training courses, but also the services in protecting watersheds, in regulating the climate and in conserving biodiversity. This report aims at presenting a literature review on the issues of tropical rainforests. It is structured in four main points: tropical rainforests characteristics, structure and distribution; tropical rain forests, goods, services and values; deforestation in tropical rainforests; sustainable strategies for management of tropical rainforests.