This area is home to some of the largest freshwater fishes in the world as well as numerous bird and turtle species. Whole scale damming has flooded sandbars and areas that nests are made during the dry season, swamps and wetlands are being destroyed for wet rice cultivation and mangroves are being turned into shrimp aquaculture areas. Only 5% of the original forest area remains.
Forests play a vital role in freshwater provisioning. “Over three quarters of the world’s accessible fresh water comes from forested watersheds and two thirds of all major cities in developing countries depend on surrounding forests for their supply of clean water.” For this reason it is not just to protect endemic species but the very people who live and depend on these forests that all nations must work to save what is left.
“Forests are being destroyed at an alarming rate to give room to pastures, agricultural land, mineral exploitation and sprawling urban areas, but by doing so we are destroying our own capacity to survive,” said Olivier Langrand, CI’s international policy chief. “Forests must be seen as more than just a group of trees. Forests give us vital benefits. They already play an enormous economic role in the development of many countries as a source of timber, food, shelter and recreation, and have an even greater potential that needs to be realized in terms of water provision, erosion prevention and carbon sequestration.”
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