Key facts about tropical forests that you should know

1. © Neil Palmer

2. BIODIVERSITY
Tropical forests cover around 7% of global land area but provide
habitat for at least half of the earth’s terrestrial biodiversity.
© Geoff Gallice

3. WATER
Forests provide critical natural filtration and storage systems that
supply an estimated 75% of accessible freshwater globally. They
provide drinking water to over 60 million indigenous people who live
in tropical forests, and at least one-third of the world’s large cities
depend on protected forest areas for their water supply.
© Neil Palmer

4. ENERGY
Healthy tropical forests can play a vital role in supporting a more
stable energy future. At local and regional levels, forests provide
fuelwood, a major source of energy (and income) for around 2
billion people, particularly in developing countries.
© Procsilas Moscas

5. FOOD
Globally, around one billion people are dependent on forests for
their basic livelihoods, and many more are consumers of food
commodities produced in or around forests.
© Neil Palmer

6. HEALTH
Forests are essential contributors to health products locally and
globally. The trade of medicines and plants from tropical forests has
been valued at US$108 billion per year. However, less than 1% of
the plant species in tropical forests have been assessed for their
medicinal properties.
© Neil Palmer

7. LIVELIHOOD
Around 1.6 billion people are partially reliant on forests and forest
products, with 350 million highly dependent on forest resources for
their livelihoods and 60 million indigenous people totally dependent
on forests.
© Neil Palmer

8. CLIMATE
Tropical forests play a critical role in regulating the world’s climate.
Every year tropical forests process six times as much carbon as
humans emit from the use of fossil fuels, and tropical forests store
around 2.8 billion tonnes of carbon annually – the equivalent of two
times the annual CO2 emissions of the U.S.A.
© Talita Oliveira

9. And yet, the world’s tropical forests are under threat from a global
economic system that values tropical forests more dead than alive.
Up to 50% of the world’s tropical forests have been cleared,
representing one of the most significant anthropogenic land use
changes in history. A key driver of this change has been the
conversion and exploitation of forests to meet the growing global
demand for commodities. Learn more about the major drivers of
deforestation at www.globalcanopy.org/LittleBookofDrivers.
© Sam Beebe