Help
Australia’s rainforests fight climate change
Message from Roger Phillips, CEO
Australian Rainforest Foundation
As the climate change debate
warms up; and the world weighs up the options, benefits and pitfalls
of carbon offsets, the Australian Rainforest Foundation (ARF)
encourages all
Australians to actively adopt ways to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions in their daily lives but at the same time
consider contributing to programs that benefit our natural environment
for the long-term.
Australia’s rainforests are as diverse
as any on earth, including the Amazon basin. They are home to
many of the world’s oldest flowering plants and provide
a ‘living laboratory’ for scientific research into
possible medicines for disease and chronic illnesses. At the
same time, Australia’s old growth forests already care
for us by cleaning the air we breathe, taking carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere and locking it away as carbon at a rate almost
2.5 times greater than that in a plantation forest.
Scientists are arguing about the value of our
rainforests, and we encourage more discussion and research; but
today’s arguments are about whether they are the ultimate
resource for our survival or the greatest resource mankind has.
In other words, there is no argument, that
these mega diverse repositories of life forms are a cornerstone
in the climate change actions. Their protection and extension
is critical to mankind’s survival.
But still rainforests are under threat throughout
the world, including here in Australia, where 25% of our rainforests
are in non-protected tenure. Loosing these forests, through man-made
or natural threats, would release this carbon into the atmosphere,
contributing further to climate change and the possible loss
of plant and animal species. Protecting Australia’s rainforests,
is not only environmentally responsible for the long-term benefit
of future generations but is something we can all do now.
The Hero2 payroll giving program is a new and innovative ARF
project which encourages employers and employees to stand side
by side to make a significant long-term investment in our environment
and the planet’s future.
The Australian Rainforest Foundation is encouraging all Australians
to take up this opportunity. To find out how you and your company
can become a Hero2 read more at www.hero2.net.au or
call the ARF on (07) 4051 2000.
How does Hero2 work?
Through a regular tax deductible payroll
contribution an individual can:
- Sponsor and protect old growth rainforest
for future generations
- Plant the right amount of native
trees in the right place to rejuvenate our rainforests
and absorb tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere; and
- Help fund the operating cost of
a wildlife hospital for endangered animals.
Employers can double this impact by
matching contributions made by their employees.
Extract from We are the Weather Makers – the
story of global warming by Tim Flannery [pg 165 – 167]
The rainforest-clad mountains of northeast
Queensland cover 10,000 square kilometres. Despite their small
size they are arguably the most important habitat in all of
Australia, because they are home to plants and animals that
are survivors from the cooler, moister Australia of 20 million
years ago.
The impending destruction of Australia’s
wet tropics rainforests is a biological disaster on the horizon. |
