ten-page DRAFT of WOL exhibition panels

Hi my name is Casper Elder

Copyright Š 2011 Just Forests.

Did you know?

Three-quarters of the world’s population rely on wood as their main source of energy.

About 4.6 billion people depend for all or some of their water supplies from forests.

More than 1 billion people living in extreme poverty around the world depend on forests for their livelihoods.

Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth’s land surface; now they cover a mere 6%. The last remaining rainforests could be gone in less than 40 years.

Rainforests are home to more than half of the world’s plants and animals.

Destruction of forests creates numerous environmental catastrophes, including altering local rainfall patterns, accelerating soil erosion, flooding of rivers, mud slides, and threatening millions of species of plants, animals and insects with extinction.

Copyright © 2011 Just Forests.

Copyright Š 2011 Just Forests.

WHAT’S HAPPENING TO OUR FOREST HOME? FARMING MINING

CONFLICT LOGGING

ROAD BUILDING

GLOBAL WARMING

FUEL WOOD THIRD WORLD DEBT

FOREST FIRES

ILLEGAL LOGGING

Some cou ntries cut down forests an d sell the tim ber to buy weapons for war.

This is kno wn as ‘conflict tim ber ’

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Every second of every day, an area of rainforest the size of Croke Park pitch is destroyed.

That’s 86,400 Croke Park pitches of rainforest per day, or over 31 million Croke Park pitches of rainforest lost each year!

It’s time to play fair and celebrate the astonishing contribution the world’s forests play in our lives!

Copyright © 2011 Just Forests.

Photo of Ireland’s national Gaelic football stadium courtesy of Sportsfile ©

Over 8000 tree species, 10% of the world’s total, are threatened with extinction!

All my animal and plant friends are disappearing and according to the World Resources Institute in Washington D.C., the biggest cause of extinction is loss of habitat.

Though the exact number is impossible to determine, an unprecedented mass extinction of life on Earth is occurring. Scientists estimate that between 150 and 200 species of life become extinct every 24 hours.

M R A L A BELL

What is bio-diversity?

Bio-diversity is the word we use to describe the astonishing variety of life on Earth, it includes: • Animals • People • Plants • Insects • Mushrooms Loss of bio-diversity results in serious reductions in the goods and services provided by the Earth’s ecosystems, which make human survival and economic prosperity possible.

The Earth’s biodiversity is the result of millions of years of evolution of life on this planet. Human activities are causing losses in biodiversity 50 to 100 times faster than would be expected in the absence of human activities.

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A wide variety of threatened tropical timber species are used in Ireland, including: Meranti/Lauan (Shorea spp. ), Ramin ( Gonystylus spp.) and Keruing ( Dipterocarpus spp. )from the Far East (Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines); Sapele (Entandrophragma cylindricum), Utile ( Entandrophragma utile ) and African Mahogany (Khaya spp.)from West/Central Africa; and Brazilian Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) from Brazil.

Who needs

forests anyway?

TROPICAL LIFE

YOU DO!

IRISH LIFE

We need forests for the following reasons...

WATER

At least 3,000 fruits are found in the rainforests; of these only 200 are now in use in the Western World. The Indians of the rainforest use over 2,000.

FOOD

HABITAT

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FUEL WOOD

Experts agree that by leaving the rainforests intact and harvesting its many nuts, fruits, oil-producing plants, and medicinal plants, the rainforests has more economic value than if they were cut down to make grazing land for cattle or for timber.

MEDICINE

OXYGEN

RECREATION

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CHOCOLATE

© iStockphoto.com/stocksnapper

© iStockphoto.com/bedo

CHEWING GUM

© iStockphoto.com/emptyclouds

LIVELIHOODS

s t s e For o t e t u b i r t n s d co o o h i l e v i l e n o i th l l i b 2 . of 1 ple peo

Villager collects leaves from a tree to use in medicine

The forest floor provides valuable fungi and plants used in the preparation of medicine for millions of rural dwellers

“In much of the world, modern health care does not reach poor people who live in rural areas. These people depend on forests and woodlands to supply them with traditional medicines.

For example, in Ghana, sick people visit a traditional healer 7.5 times more than a modern doctor. This is likely because for every modern doctor there are almost 10,000 patients. In Europe most doctors have an average of 300 patients.”

IUCN-Forest Conservation Programme

More than 60 per cent of the world’s people depend directly on plants for their medicine

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CLIMATE CHANGE The Role of Forests

Of all the threats to forests, climate change is the most insidious. Its impacts will be felt to varying degrees in many forests and woodlands around the world.

Deforestation and forest fires release carbon dioxide stored in trees This results in less carbon dioxide being removed from the atmosphere The increase of carbon dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere thickens the ‘greenhouse blanket’, with the result that too much hear is trapped into the earth’s atmosphere This causes global warming: global temperatures rise and cause climate change

Biodiversity loss and dangerous climate change can only be avoided if we act now! n w o d n Tur n i t a e h e th e m o h r u yo

Walk and cycle

Use pu blic transpo rt

e s o o h C d e fi i t r e c C FS d o o w

Insulate your ho use

Switch off ligh ts when n ot needed s e e r t t n a s e Pl e r t f o S LOT

One m ature tree a approx bsorbs imately 13 pou carbon nds of dioxide every t a year. F on of o r w grows, ood a it remo forest ves 147 carbon tons of dioxide and rep it with 1.07 ton laces s of oxy gen.

Don’t leav e appliance s in stand-by mode Copyright © 2011 Just Forests.

WHERE ON EARTH DO WE GET OUR TROPICAL WOOD Boreal 33%

Temperate 11%

Tropical 47%

Mah ogan y log on th s from eir w ay to C Irelan ameroo n in W d. Ph oto: Just est Africa Fores ts.

Sub-tropical 9% Original Forest Cover Current Forest Cover

When people admire wood and wood products, they rarely think for a moment of the country of origin of the forest from which the wood is taken.

Nor indeed do they think of the conditions in which the population of that country live or the damage caused to their environment by the destruction of their forests. Nor do they realise that the accumulated destruction of forests in all countries is contributing in a massive way towards overall global warming.

The following tropical woods may be in use in your home or school: Iroko (Africa) Mahogany (Africa, South America, Central America) San Domingan Rosewood (Africa, S.E. Asia, Central America, Australia) Tropical Olive (Africa) Zebrano (Africa) Teak (Africa, Central America, S.E. Asia) Khaya (Africa) Obeche (Africa) Indian Laurel (S.E. Asia) Ekki (Africa) Wenge (Africa)

Are we using our forest resources wisely?

Copyright Š 2011 Just Forests.