The Amazon Rainforest covers seven million square kilometers across nine South American countries and is home to an incredible diversity of habitats and species. It contains more than 40,000 plant and about ten percent of the world’s animal species. In addition, it plays a crucial role in regulating the global climate by sequestering carbon dioxide and limiting the rise in the Earth’s temperature. Despite its importance, it remains threatened by deforestation, forest fires and logging. Reason enough to share some everyday and travel tips you can use to help protect the rainforest. PICTURE © Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica
5 tips to help protect the rainforest in your daily life:
- Cut meat consumption: One of the reasons for deforestation is the cultivation of soy as animal feed for domestic cattle and pig breeds. All the more reason to reduce your meat consumption, or maybe even give up meat altogether. But other animal products, such as milk, should also be consumed with caution, as we explain here.
- Avoid products that contain palm oil: You’ve probably heard of it in the context of rainforest conservation. In fact, palm oil is found in many products, from cosmetics to chocolate cream to biodiesel, and is a major contributor to rainforest destruction. We recommend that you check carefully whether a product contains palm oil and, if so, choose another product. By the way: As of 2014, the use of palm oil must be declared on every product in the EU.
- Save paper: This is true for both regular paper and toilet paper. Large areas of rainforest are cut down for each. Therefore, it is better to use recycled paper and to use it sparingly.
- Aluminum: Parts of the rainforest are cut down in the search for aluminum. We recommend that you avoid single-use aluminum whenever possible and make sure that the packaging of the products you buy does not contain aluminum.
- Charcoal: Nowadays, tropical wood can even be found in barbecue charcoal. That’s why, especially in the coming barbecue season, you should make sure that the charcoal does not contain tropical wood and look for quality seals such as the Naturland seal.
4 tips for a greener stay in the rainforest:
- Accommodation: When choosing your accommodation, make sure it is sustainable and supports the local community, like our Green Pearls © partner Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica.
- Tours: The same goes for choosing a tour operator, of course.
- Protect the environment: When trekking through the rainforest, always stay on the designated trails and try not to disturb the animals. And although we probably don’t need to mention it here: Of course, you should also dispose of your garbage properly.
- Support the locals: Whether eating out or buying souvenirs or other products, we can only repeat it again and again – buy local! Not only does it directly support local people, but in most cases it’s also a more sustainable (and better).
In the end, we hope we provided you with some useful tips on how to protect the rainforest, and if you want to experience it for yourself, we recommend our Green Travel Guide Peru, which will release next week.