
The Amazon rain forest is the world's greatest
natural resource - the most powerful and
bio-actively diverse natural phenomenon on
the planet. However, the rain forests are being
destroyed due to the harvesting of the
unsustainable resources such as timber for
agriculture and cattle grazing and for subsistence
cropping by the inhabitants of the forest.
Sustainable harvesting of these resources is of great value
because they provide long-term profits and reliable income for the
native population. Entire communities and indigenous tribes earn
5 to 10 times more money harvesting medicinal plants then they can
earn by dropping down the forest for subsistence crops.
The Amazon rain forest is the richest biological incubator in the planet. Its
plants offer a variety of amazing medicinal purposes. The forest also awaits
the discovery of a myriad of possibilities of chemical invention that will yield
innumerable cures for diseases that remain as of today untreated.
Unfortunately, experts estimate that at the current rate of destruction we are losing
many species of plants and animals everyday. How many opportunities to save lives
via medicinal discoveries have we already lost?