Why are Rainforest Important to Humans

            Tropical forests are extremely important to humans and environment as sources of food, medicine, and as climatic and environmental stabilizers. A human benefit is the medicinal value of the plants in the tropical forests, and environmental benefits that the tropical forests provide include the regulation of water and air.

                Medicines derived from plants in tropical forest
Source: http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0905-conservatory_of_flowers.html

           The abundant botanical resources of tropical forests have already provided tangible medical advances. Tropical forests represent nature's main storehouse of raw materials for modern medicine. Plants alone offer a host of analgesics, antibiotics, heart drugs, enzymes, and hormones, among many others. Plants have been found in the rainforests that eventually might help people with life-threatening diseases, like cancer. For example, a Malaysian gum tree, researchers in 1991 isolated a compound that blocked the spread of the AIDS virus in human cells. Also, in Sarawak, the Penan people use over 50 medicinal plants which they harvest from the primary forest - plant that are used as poison antidotes, contraceptives, clot thing agents and etc.. In fact, 40 percent of medicines that are prescribed have tropical origins. Considering that only one percent of all the rainforest plants have been studied, it is possible that there are many more that could help people.

Source:https://str.llnl.gov/str/March06/Brown.html

            Rainforests also important to the environment as they recycle water and regulate levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Rainforests are the world's full-time regulators of air and water. Tropical rainforests help maintain global rain and weather patterns. Much of the water that evaporates from the trees returns in the form of rainfall. Removal of the forest can change the natural rainfall patterns. A rainforest's role in recycling water is very important to the planet. Additionally, the tropics, which are called carbon sinks, take a major role in reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is believed to cause climate change through global warming. Therefore, climate change has been significantly contributed to by the destruction of the rain forests. 



References:
Myers, N. (1992, January 1). The Primary Source: Tropical Forests and Our Future. Retrieved from http://www.ciesin.org/docs/002-109/002-109b.html
http://www.conservatoryofflowers.org/sites/default/files/Tropical%20Ecosystem.pdf