
A treasure trove of biodiversity and services
Timothy Cox Fort Worth Texas : Around the world, the forest offers many services:
* The number of people living through the forest wealth is estimated at 1.6 billion: food, shelter, firewood collection, source of income, housing, medication .... The forest is rich "genetic" because many molecules of plants, undiscovered, could certainly be used to create new drugs.
* The forest preserves, filters and purifies water: vegetation under trees intercepts rain and promotes water infiltration into the soil, allowing better recharges groundwater. She holds a number of pollutants and thus acts as a filter for water before it enters the ground to become groundwater.
- It protects the soil against erosion of fertile soil layers are the most near-surface layers, and took thousands of years to form. When barren, they are subject to natural erosion due to wind or water runoff on slopes.
- It prevents natural hazards such as floods: vegetation forest soil retains water which prevents precipitation they increase the flow of rivers too abruptly. It also warns of avalanches (trees trap snow) storms (forests help to some extent to reduce the intensity of the winds) and Tsunami (mangroves are a natural barrier against the waves).
- It regulates the local climate and air quality: the evaporation of water contained in vegetation plays a role in the temperature and humidity at the local level and foliage trap particles from the air.
- It is essential to the conservation of biodiversity: it is home to bees and other species 'pollinator' (birds, insects). Forests provide better resistance to epidemics and disasters. For example, forests are the natural habitats of predators of pests of crops such as bats providing service "regulation of parasites." Finally, they allow adaptation to environmental changes. Indeed, most tree species are diverse, more adaptability of the forest is important not only to climate change but also to other disturbances (reaction storms or fires, for example).
Trees in mountainsIn mountain, trees are essential to prevent landslides
Of water in the forêtLes pools, ponds, bogs and swamps are areas of great ecological wealth
The French forest reserves for biodiversity
# The forest includes 136 species of trees in France and 1,300 different species of trees in the forest of Guyana.
# It is home to 72% of species of the French flora, but also 73 species of mammals and 120 species of birds.
Guyanese forest alone has 7-10 000 plant species (1,000 species of trees), 1 200 species of vertebrates, including 685 bird species, 400 000 insect species, between 10 and 20% of inventoried insect species in the world.
Some forests are protected when they are located in national parks and nature reserves. Protected areas should be extended again.
To better understand the life of the forest, discover the animals of the forest, trees, mushrooms, you can visit the National Forest Office.
You'll even find ideas for walks!