Saturday June 22 is World Rainforest Day, with this year's theme (2024) being 'The Year of Action'.
The Rainforest Partnership founded World Rainforest Day in 2017, in order to celebrate the importance of health, standing rainforests for climate, biodiversity, culture and livelihoods.
2024 has been dubbed the Year of Action, and the Rainforest Partnership are leading a global campaign in collaboration with industry leaders across a variety of sectors to take action to protect rainforests and biodiversity.
So why are rainforests so important?
Biodiversity
Rainforests cover 6% of the earth's surface but are home to 50% of the worlds biodiversity.
An estimated 80,000 plant species reside in the Amazon rainforest alone.
Biodiversity from rainforests is the source of so many products we use daily, from shampoos, coffees, painkillers, and there are invaluable genetic resources in our rainforests with still untapped potential.
Climate change
Rainforests are vital carbon sinks, and play a critical role in climate regulation and carbon sequestration.
30% of global carbon emissions are absorbed and stored in forests.
The Amazon rainforest along stores an estimate tens of billions of tons of carbon - not only mitigating the greenhouse effect by reducing atmospheric carbon emissions but supporting the carbon cycle to help maintain earth's climate stability.
The Rainforest Partnership state that due to their capacity to store and absorb carbon, rainforests are "Our greatest allies when it comes to countering and reversing some of the worst effects of climate change".
Culture and livelihoods
Rainforests are places of invaluable knowledge, cultural diversity and traditions.
30 million people call the Amazon rainforest home - this includes over 350 indigenous and ethnic groups with their own distinct cultures.
Papau New Guinea, a rainforest country, has over 10 million inhabitants, and a staggering 800 languages are spoken across them.
Other fantastic rainforest cultural hotspots include the often forgotten rainforests of Central Africa, including the Congo Basin.
All of these communities directly depend on their homeland, the rainforests, for their livelihoods. Their knowledge and traditions relating to forest management, sustainable agriculture and biodiversity conservation are crucial in protecting our planet's rainforests, their biodiversity, and their wonderful communities.
The Rainforest Partnership recognise that supporting the rights, knowledge and participation of those indigenous and local communities are essential in the protection of all rainforests.
The Year of Action
Protecting these vital places, ending deforestation and stopping climate change requires immediate and unrelenting action.
This year the Rainforest Partnership launched their World Rainforest Day pledge program to drive action across all sectors and get people to act.
You can get involved and take action by making a pledge for rainforests - either as a company or as an individual.
So we hope lots of you decide to join the Rainforest Partnership in protecting one of our planet's most impressive and essential places, our rainforests.
Go to the World Rainforest Day website for more information.
