Daintree Rainforest Discussion

Guest · Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2004 2:54 pm Post subject:

It is Australia’s most prestigious rainforest, over one hundred and thirty-five million years old – the oldest in the world.

(40 MILLION YEARS OLDER THAN THE AMAZON!!)

(The Daintree area Rainforests are the second largest after the Amazon Rainforest in South America.)

The area protected under World Heritage listing covers an area of approximately 12,000 square kilometres, stretching from Townsville to Cooktown, 75% of which is tropical rainforest an area equivalent to about the size of Sydney. Included are many national parks such as Daintree, Barron Gorge and Wooroonooran National Parks.

Out of 19 families of angiosperms (flowering plants, meaning ‘contained seeds’) recognised as ‘primitive’ (prehistoric) there are 12 found in the Wet Tropics, two families, Austrobaileyaceae and Idiospermaceae, occur nowhere else. This number of primitive families in such a minute fraction of the world’s tropical rainforests gives the Wet Tropics the highest concentration of such families on earth. Within the most primitive of the families, there are 50 species confined to the area.

Guest · Guest

Since you all enjoyed the other facts, here are some more:
(I'm a researcher and my supervisor loves facts!)

"In ten hectares of Daintree Rainforest there are more species of trees than you would find in all of North America or Europe" - Dan Irby, Mangrove Adventures.

The Daintree Rainforest contains 430 recorded species of birdlife
(over half the bird population of Australia).

The area protected under World Heritage listing covers an area of approximately 12,000 square kilometres, stretching from Townsville to Cooktown, 75% of which is tropical rainforest an area equivalent to about the size of Sydney.

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On a principle level, rainforests are essential to human life because they turn carbon dioxide into oxygen. Carbon dioxide in the air created by burning wood, car engines etc, is removed and stored in the leaves, branches, roots and stems of plants. This collecting of carbon dioxide helps reduce the amount of pollution in the air, and in turn assists in reducing the greenhouse effect.

But there is another, more scientifically minded reason that highlights the importance of the Australian Daintree Rainforest. Scientists are quickly learning that cures to diseases that affect humans can be found in the rainforest of the world, including the Daintree Rainforest. There are plants that live in these ecosystems that are found in extremely small numbers, and losses of these types of plants could mean losses of potential cures.

However, scientists looking for anti-cancer properties have only been able to test 1 in 10 tropical forest plants to date. Drugs used daily around the world have come from the rainforest, including aspirin. Tropical rainforests have provided chemicals used to treat muscular inflammation and tension, diabetes, malaria, heart conditions, rheumatism, skin conditions, and arthritis. Chemicals are found in rainforests that act as stimulants, tranquillisers, and contraceptives.

Researchers found a tree from the Malaysian rainforest in 1987 that was totally effective at killing the HIV-1 visus. Unfortunately, they were never able to find the tree again…but they’re still looking.

Even though we live in an age where we believe that science has all the answers and we know everything about the planet we live on, there are still plants and animals in the rainforests that have not yet been discovered by humans.

Maverick · Guest

Hey guys, check out these web sites for some daintree info.

www.daintreelandtrust.org

www.nakedineden.com

www. austrop.org