The Jungle Marathon and the Environment

A year ago Lowri was invited to her old school, Ysgol Gyfun Gŵyr, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Lowri was one of the first pupils to attend when the school was opened.

Several stars have emerged from this particular school including Lowri herself, who ran cross-country for Wales and is now a marathon runner.

A new generation has taken over from Lowri and her friends, and favourite subjects in the curriculum include the environment and the rainforest.

During her visit to the school, Lowri was inspired to get involved in attracting our attention to global warming and the dangers that face the rainforest. That challenge was the Jungle Marathon.

The Jungle Marathon is one of the hardest and longest races in the world. It takes 7 days to run the 6 stages of 222 km, totally self-supporting, through the world's largest jungle - a jungle which is under threat.

It is an honour to be able to run in the unspoilt, virgin terrain of the jungle. It is also a privilege, and everyone involved in the race is extremely sensitive to the environmental impact that an event such as this could have on the finely balanced ecosystem.

Destruction

Rainforests have evolved over millions of years to turn into the incredibly complex environments they are today. Everything within the forest is so interdependent that upsetting one part can lead to unknown damage or even destruction of the whole. Sadly, it has taken only a century of human intervention to destroy what nature designed to last forever.

Before humans started destroying the rainforests, they covered 15% of the Earth's land area. Today they cover less than 7%. In the last 200 years, the total area of rainforest has decreased from 1,500 hectares to less than 800 million hectares. One hectare may contain over 750 types of trees and 1500 species of plants.

The scale of human pressures on ecosystems everywhere has increased enormously in the last few decades. Since 1980 the global economy has tripled in size and the world population has increased by 30%. Consumption of everything on the planet has risen at a cost to our ecosystems. Experts estimate that the demand for rice, wheat and corn is expected to grow by 40% by 2020, and the demand for wood could double by the year 2050. More than 200,000 acres o rainforest are burned every day. That is more than 150 acres lost every minute of every day and 78 million acres lost every year. If nothing is done to curb this trend, the entire Amazon could well be gone within fifty years.

It's a Race against Time

Experts estimate that we are losing 137 plants, animal and insect species every single day which equates to 50,000 a year. As the rainforest species disappear, so do many possible cures for life-threatening diseases. Currently, 121 prescription drugs sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources while 25% of pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients.

There were an estimated 10 million Indians living n the Amazonian Rainforest five centuries ago. Today there are fewer than 200,000.

The Amazon Rainforest has been described as the 'Lungs' of our planet because it provides the essential environmental world service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. More than 20% of the world's oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest.

At least 3000 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.

Experts agree that by leaving the rainforests intact and harvesting its many nuts, fruit, oil-producing plants and medicinal plants, the rainforest has more economic value than if they were cut down to make grazing land for cattle or for timber. If managed properly, the rainforest can provide the world's need for these natural resources on a perpetual basis.

The Jungle Marathon can bring everyone's attention to the loss we are facing on this planet if we don't react positively and change our attitude. The simple fact is that the rainforest is being destroyed for the income and profits it yields. Money still makes the world go around but this still means that if landowners, governments and those living in the forest were give a viable economic reason not to destroy the rainforest, it could and would be saved. These alternatives do exist and are working today - buying and selling renewable resources. These sustainable resources - not the trees - are the true wealth of the rainforest. Change is in our hands.