Forest
Home for everyone
A natural forest is a “multilayered vegetation unit dominated by trees, whose combined strata have overlapping crowns and where grasses are generally rare which help biodiversity to thrive”.
Forests are the carbon capture and storage machine. A natural forest will store up to 40 times more carbon than a plantation that is harvested every decade.
Forests are:
- home to incredible biodiversity and provide wildlife habitat for thousands of species.
- critical to the climate because forests maintain rainfall and prevent soil erosion.
- providing 100% pure mineral water.
We depend on forests for our survival; from the air we breathe to the wood we use. Besides providing wildlife habitats and livelihoods for humans, forests also offer watershed protection, prevent soil erosion and mitigate climate change. Yet, despite our dependence on forests, we are still destroying them.
Over 2.5 billion people rely on forests
Forests provide us shelter, livelihoods, water, food and fuel. All these activities directly or indirectly involve forests. We are getting flowers and fruits, timber, charcoal, caoutchouc, catechu, wood-oil, resin, natural varnish, bark, lac directly from forests and medicines, cosmetics, detergents, so on indirectly as a by-product of forests.
There are 3 basic types of forests.
- Primary Forest: A primary forest is a forest that has never been logged and has developed following natural disturbances like fires or logging and under natural processes, regardless of its age. Shrubs, grasses and young trees attract animals like bears, rabbits and birds.
- Secondary Forest: A secondary forest is a forest that has been logged and has recovered naturally or artificially. Not all secondary forests provide the same value to sustaining biological diversity.
- Older Forest: With large trees, a complex canopy and a highly developed under-story of vegetation, old forests provide habitat for an array of animals, including bats, squirrels and a variety of birds.
BIODIVERSITY
Biodiversity is the variability among living organisms from all sources and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species and between species.
A single tree can be home to hundreds of species of insects, fungi, moss, mammals, and plants. Depending on the kind of food and shelter they need, different forest animals require different types of habitat. Without trees, forest creatures would have nowhere to call home.
We have to revive the food chain.
Importance of a tree:
Trees play a key role in attracting clouds, therefore, clouds can stop and trees can capture rainwater and reduce the danger of natural disasters like floods and landslides. Their complex root organizations act like filters; removing pollutants and slowing down the water’s absorption into the ground. This process prevents harmful waterside erosion and reduces the risk of over-saturation and flooding.
The tree also add its minerals in rainwater and that water mixed with other 'added minerals by nature' will reach to recharge the groundwater.
According to the Food and Agriculture Association of the United Nations, a mature evergreen tree can intercept more than 15,000 liters of water every year.