If there is one place on the planet earth that must be protected and safeguarded, it is the South and Central American rain-forests, which encompasses the greatest biological diversity in the world. Comprised of seven percent of the earth's surface, tropical rain-forests is home to more than 50 percent of all forms of life on the planet. Besides being treasure-troves of biodiversity,these verdant realms are also crucial to regulating the planet's weather and rainfall.

Continuously consuming carbon dioxide and pumping fresh oxygen into the atmosphere, rain forests have been called "the lungs of the planet." They are a bountiful pharmacy, the source of at least one-quarter of all prescription drugs developed for the well being of humankind. Seventy-percent of all plants identified by the National Cancer Institute for use in cancer treatments are found only in rain-forests. Much remains undiscovered. Only one percent of the rain-forests' profuse plant life has been scientifically analyzed to determine its medicinal potential.

The fact remains that each day more than one hundred thousand acres of these rain forests are lost to cattle ranching, agriculture, commercial interests, and it must stop.
Deep in the remote jungles of South America exist places of pristine and mysterious beauty. The lush abundance of life in the jungle is one of the last remaining localities where natural populations of rare and endangered plants, animals, and people can still be found.

For over thirty thousand years, from the windswept, snow-dusted Andes down through the mist-shrouded cloud forest of Brazil, to the dark, humid stillness of the lowland floor of Venezuela, an indigenous population continues to live in harmony with the forest and its inhabitants. Much has been written about the devastation of the rain-forest, but little mention has been made of the continuing massacre of the few remaining Indian Tribes. Free from the encumbrances of a so-called civilized world, these Indians live a simple life. South American Indians are not interested in fame or fortune, or the white man's greed for oil, they simply want what legally belongs to them, the Amazon Jungle. Their only desire is to be left alone so that they may live and die in peace. If the world is to survive, the preservation of the rain forest is essential, and the birth right of the Amazon Indians must endure.

Learn more about this author, Patricia Dexheimer.
Click here to send author comments or questions.

---

Add your voice

Know something about Should US environmental standards apply when multinational companies develop the petroleum resources of fragile ecosystems such as Peru's Amazon??
We want to hear your view. Write now!