A: About big international issues: what do you see as the most important environmental issues of the moment?
B: It’s quite difficult to make a kind of hierarchy of worry here, because so many issues are there, and so … and they’re all very very important. But I think it has to be said that as far as we we’re concerned, as a campaigning organization, it really is the rain forest that we are concentrating on most. If we don’t take action on that issue within the next five years, then environmental pressure groups won’t have anything to do in ten years’ time, because there won’t be any rain forests, really, for them to campaign about. So this is a critical period for the rain forests, the next five years, and there is enough flexibility in the system to allow us to hope that we’re going to be able to make some changes during that time. So that’s why we’ve made it our priority.
A: What’s so important about the rain forests, then? Er, what’s, what’s the difference between having them or not having them? Isn’t it just, you know, basically either there are a lot of trees there or there aren’t a lot of trees there?
B: Uhh … well that’s what some people would like to think. Um, there, it’s important in many different ways, important firstly for the countries themselves, in terms of the fact that millions of people depend on the rain forests for their livelihood, and for their … the quality of their environment, through the protection of watersheds, and so on. Secondly, they’re important because of the biological richness of the rain forests. Um, a genetic ches … treasure chest is how they’ve been described. Um, more than 60% of the world’s species is to be found in the rain forests. Write that off, and you write off that genetic storehouse. Lastly, they’re important at international level because of the impact on climatic patterns that one would find if the rain forests were destroyed. So, whether you’re looking closely at the tribal people who depend on them, the countries which depend on them, the international community which depends on them, indeed the, the, you know, the creatures themselves, um, it’s actually the most critical issue that we face. And our prime job is of course to try and get people to understand how it is, even in countries where there are no rain forests, that they still have a connection with the rain forests.
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