Environment - Rain Forest

Preservation of the approximately 10-acre existing Rainforest located on Finca de Cynthia is important to Orocafe.

Walk into this rainforest and listen to the waterfalls; feel the refreshing drop in temperature. Orocafe and Finca de Cynthia are blessed with this wonderful natural resource.

Did you know:

1. Tropical rainforests are by far the richest habitat on Earth. As many as 30 million species of plants and animals -- more than half of all life forms -- live in tropical rainforests.
2. Rainforests cover less than two percent of the Earth's surface, yet they are home to some fifty to seventy percent of all life forms on our planet. The rainforests are quite simply the richest, oldest, most productive and most complex ecosystems on Earth. As biologist Norman Myers notes, "Rainforests are the finest celebration of nature ever known on the planet." And never before has nature's greatest orchestration been so threatened.
3. Rainforests are also part of the global weather system. Destroying them alters the hydrological cycle -- causing drought, flooding, and soil erosion in areas where such events were previously rare. The cutting of forests also changes the reflectivity, of the earth's surface, which in turn alters wind and ocean current patterns and changes rainfall distribution. Two hundred days of the year there are thunderstorms in the rainforests where as much as 200 centimeters of rain falls annually.
4. Rainforests represent a valuable education resource for studying the interconnectedness of natural systems, which scientists are only just beginning to understand. For example, a certain species of ants has a relationship with the rainforest Acacia plant. These ants raise their young inside the Acacia thorn. Not only do they make nests in the thorns, they also feed the infants and themselves with material obtained from the plant. In exchange for this safe home and constant food supply, the ants constantly patrol the plant and attack any animals which try to feed on the plant. If we destroy either the plant or the animal, both may perish. (Note: There is an Acacia plant located on the finca adjacent to ours so we may have one also. We will let you know. Also, we have been told that there is Teak growing in our rainforest. We have a lot to discover & learn.)