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Poverty in Asia,caste and progress. In this FAO Poverty In Asia map, Darker is Poorer but some light areas are just 'no data' - see our Poor in a Rich World page.A majority of the worlds poorest people today are in Asia - partly because it holds a majority of the world's population. Of course some Asian countries like Japan and South Korea are not as poor as others like India and Cambodia, with Asian poverty being concentrated in South Asia.  Asian poverty1. Poverty in some Asian countries is largely due to the pressure of population growth on scarce resources and inadequate governments allowing strongly negative caste discrimination. 2. Education, medicine, clean water and sanitation are often inadequate also3. In some Asian countries land ownership being problematic also encourages poverty. 4. Asia till recently attracted less foreign investment than Latin America, but more of it has been stable longer-term European investment. Some of Asia has shown good progress on poverty in recent years, like China and South Korea. (in China noteably helped partly by controls on population growth)  But Asia, holding the largest populations, still has many extreme poor. The current world recession is also causing family remittances from overseas workers or migrant workers to fall. As more migrant workers lose jobs in Western Europe and the USA, remittances to their poor families in Central Asia are being hit hard. And the likely prospect for aid in the short term is a sharp fall.

# The new green selected food crops have been helping in reducing poverty in Asia, but the newer genetically modified food crops and their monopoly providers seem to have been unhelpful to date ? See South Asia Land Management  - SACEP pdf 1.5 mb # For one small charity trying to do some good extreme-poverty work in India today, see SEED at seedkolkata.org or for another similar good small extreme-poverty charity working in Cambodia, see the Sao Sara Foundation at ssfcambodia.org Good small charities like these often lack the money they need to do as much as they would like. # For facts about individual countries, see NationMaster

The rainforest provides habitat for various species of animals. The canopy, trunk, root system, and even the fallen leaves provide a place for these creatures to live and thrive. What happens when rainforests are destroyed? First, all of the trees, underbrush and the animals not able to escape are killed. Many animals that escape migrate to an area already populated. Since the land will only support a limited number of any species, only a few will survive. At the best we will only have lost those individuals without a habitat. It is possibly, however, that the entire population will uses up all available resources and spirals into extinction

The rainforest provides habitat for various species of animals. The canopy, trunk, root system, and even the fallen leaves provide a place for these creatures to live and thrive. What happens when rainforests are destroyed? First, all of the trees, underbrush and the animals not able to escape are killed. Many animals that escape migrate to an area already populated. Since the land will only support a limited number of any species, only a few will survive. At the best we will only have lost those individuals without a habitat. It is possibly, however, that the entire population will uses up all available resources and spirals into extinction.

The Sumatran rhinoceros is a small, hairy rhinoceros which survives in limited numbers in pockets of Indonesian and Malaysian rain forests. In the early 1900s it ranged over most of Southeast Asia from the Himalayas in Bhutan, eastern India through Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo. Now they are only found in little forest pockets on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and the Malay peninsula.

The smallest living rhinoceros, the Sumatran rhinoceros has a gray-brown leathery hide. Its deep folds around the neck, behind the front legs, and before the hind legs give the rhinoceros an armor-plated appearance. It has a short, stocky body and stumpy legs which are covered with coarse reddish-brown hair. Its body length is from 8 to 8.5 feet and stands 4.5 feet at the shoulders. A mature rhino weighs from 2200 to 4400 pounds.

The Sumatran rhinoceros is the only Asian rhinoceros with two horns. Both sexes of rhinos have horns, the front horn being larger, averaging 15 to 20 inches. The male's horns are usually bigger than the female's, whose second, smaller horn is often absent. The upper lip curves down and can move around to grasp objects.

Animals that live in the tundra have special adaptations that allow them to survive the extreme temperatures and conditions that are present in a tundra.  A good example of an animal with special adaptations is the Arctic Fox.  The Arctic Fox has short ears and a short, round body with a thick coat to minimize the amount of skin exposed to the frigid air.  There is a low amount of biodiversity in the tundra so fluctuations in one animal population will effect populations in another.  An example of this would be that if in a certain year there is a lower amount of Lemmings than usual, then the population of Snowy Owls, who feed mostly on Lemmings, will also decrease.

Highly adaptable, tigers range from the Siberian taiga, to open grasslands, to tropical mangrove swamps. They are territorial and generally solitary animals, often requiring large contiguous areas of habitat that support their prey demands. This, coupled with the fact that they are endemic to some of the more densely populated places on earth, has caused significant conflicts with humans. Of the nine subspecies of modern tiger, three are extinct and the remaining six are classified as endangered, some critically so. The primary direct causes are habitat destruction and fragmentation, and hunting. Their historical range, which once reached from Mesopotamia and the Caucasus through most of South and East Asia, has been radically reduced. While all surviving species are under formal protection, poaching, habitat destruction and inbreeding depression continue to be threats.

Tigers are perhaps the most recognisable of all the cats (with the possible exception of the lion). They typically have rusty-reddish to brown-rusty coats, a whitish medial and ventral area, a white "fringe" that surrounds the face, and stripes that vary from brown or gray to pure black.

Main article: Golden tabby A rare golden tabby/strawberry tiger at the Buffalo Zoo. In addition, another recessive gene may create a very unusual "golden tabby" colour variation, sometimes known as "strawberry." Golden tabby tigers have light gold fur, pale legs and faint orange stripes. Their fur tends to be much thicker than normal.[50] There are extremely few golden tabby tigers in captivity, around 30 in all. Like white tigers, strawberry tigers are invariably at least part Bengal. Some golden tabby tigers, called heterozygous tigers, carry the white tiger gene, and when two such tigers are mated, can produce some stripeless white offspring. Both white and golden tabby tigers tend to be larger than average Bengal tigers.

Scientists believe that there is such a great diversity of animals because rainforests are the oldest ecosystem on earth.

Many animals species have developed relationships with each other that benefit both species. Birds and mammal species love to eat the tasty fruits provided by trees. Even fish living in the Amazon River rely on fruits dropped from forest trees. In turn, the fruit trees depend upon these animals to eat their fruit, which helps them to spread their seeds to far-off parts of the forest.

The harpy eagle is endangered mainly because of habitat loss and hunting.

there is a probability that about 30 percent of the Manatees will be extinct in the next three generations (90 years).

The majors threats to its population are loss of habitat and capture for commercial pet markets.

Since just 1950, the world's population has more than doubled to more than 6 billion people, with the fastest population growth being in the tropics.

Today, more than 3 billion people live in the tropics alone, more than lived in the entire world in 1950.

Annual world consumption of tropical hardwoods is now more than 250 million cubic meters, or over 100 billion board feet, per year.

Education in the Afghanistan was significantly improved under the rule of King Zahir Shah (from 1933 to 1973),[1] making primary schools available to about half the population who were younger than 12 years of age, and expanding the secondary school system and the national university at Kabul.

n 1996 the Taliban regime banned education for females, and the madrassa (mosque school) became the main source of primary and secondary education.[1] After the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, the interim government received substantial international aid to restore the education system.[1] In 2003 some 7,000 schools were operating in 20 of the 34 provinces, with 27,000 teachers teaching 4.2 million children (including 1.2 million girls).[1] Of that number, about 3.9 million were in primary schools.[1] When Kabul University reopened in 2002, some 24,000 students, male and female, enrolled.[1] Five other universities were being rehabilitated in the early 2000s.[1] Since the end of the dogmatic Taliban era in 2001, public school curricula have included religious subjects, but detailed instruction is left to religious teachers.[1] In 2003 an estimated 57 percent of men and 86 percent of women were illiterate, and the lack of skilled and educated workers was a major economic disadvantage.[1]

Despite those improvements, large percent of the population remained illiterate.[1] Beginning with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, successive wars virtually destroyed the education system.[1] Most teachers fled the country during the wars.[1] By the middle of the 1990s, only about 650 schools were functioning.[1]

It is estimated that nearly half of the world's estimated 10 million species of plants, animals, and microorganisms will be destroyed or severely threatened over the next quarter-century due to rainforest deforestation.

Commercial logging is the single largest cause of rainforest destruction, both directly and indirectly. Other activities destroying the rainforest, including clearing land for grazing animals and subsistence farming. The simple fact is that people are destroying the Amazon rainforest and the rest of the rainforests of the world because "they can't see the forest for the trees."

When a medicine man dies without passing his arts on to the next generation, the tribe and the world loses thousands of years of irreplaceable knowledge about medicinal plants.

Many species of animal life can be found in the rain forest. Common characteristics found among mammals and birds (and reptiles and amphibians, too) include adaptations to a life in the trees, such as the prehensile tails of New World monkeys. Other characteristics are bright colors and sharp patterns, loud vocalizations, and diets heavy on fruits. Insects make up the largest single group of animals that live in tropical forests. They include brightly colored butterflies, mosquitoes, camouflaged stick insects, and huge colonies of ants. The Amazon river basin rainforest contains a wider variety of plant and animal life than any other biome in the world. The second largest population of plant and animal life can be found in scattered locations and islands of Southeast Asia. The lowest variety can be found in Africa. There may be 40 to 100 different species in 2.5 acres ( 1 hectare) of a tropical rain forest.   When early explorers first discovered the rainforests of Africa, Southeast Asia and South America, they They were amazed by the dense growth, trees with giant buttresses, vines and epiphytes . The tropical vegetation grew so dense that it was difficult to cut one's way through it. It was thought at the time that the soil of a rainforest must be very fertile, filled with nutrients, enabling it to support the immense trees and other vegetation they found. Today we know that the soil of the tropical rainforests is shallow, very poor in nutrients and almost without soluble minerals. Thousands of years of heavy rains have washed away the nutrients in the soil obtained from weathered rocks. The rainforest has a very short nutrient cycle. Nutrients generally stay in an ecosystem by being recycled and in a rainforest are mainly found in the living plants and the layers of decomposing leaf litter. Various species of decomposers like insects, bacteria, and fungi make quick work of turning dead plant and animal matter into nutrients. Plants take up these nutrients the moment they are released. A study in the Amazon rainforest found that 99% of nutrients are held in root mats. When a rainforest is burned or cut down the nutrients are removed from the ecosystem. The soil can only be used for a very short time before it becomes completely depleted of all nutrients.

Besides these four layers, a shrub/sapling layer receives about 3 % of the light that filters in through the canopies. These stunted trees are capable of a sudden growth surge when a gap in the canopy opens above them. The air beneath the lower canopy is almost always humid. The trees themselves give off water through the pores (stomata) of their leaves. This process, called transpiration, can account for as much as half of the precipitation in the rain forest. Rainforest plants have made many adaptations to their environment. With over 80 inches of rain per year, plants have made adaptations that helps them shed water off their leaves quickly so the branches don't get weighed down and break. Many plants have drip tips and grooved leaves, and some leaves have oily coatings to shed water. To absorb as much sunlight as possible on the dark understory, leaves are very large. Some trees have leaf stalks that turn with the movement of the sun so they always absorb the maximum amount of light. Leaves in the upper canopy are dark green, small and leathery to reduce water loss in the strong sunlight. Some trees will grow large leaves at the lower canopy level and small leaves in the upper canopy. Other plants grow in the upper canopy on larger trees to get sunlight. These are the epiphytes such as orchids and bromeliads. Many trees have buttress and stilt roots for extra support in the shallow, wet soil of the rainforests. Over 2,500 species of vines grow in the rainforest. Lianas start off as small shrubs that grow on the forest floor. To reach the sunlight in the upper canopy it sends out tendrils to grab sapling trees. The liana and the tree grow towards the canopy together. The vines grow from one tree to another and make up 40% of the canopy leaves. The rattan vine has spikes on the underside of its leaves that point backwards to grab onto sapling trees. Other "strangler" vines will use trees as support and grow thicker and thicker as they reach the canopy, strangling its host tree. They look like trees whose centers have been hollowed out. Dominant species do not exist in tropical rainforests. Lowland dipterocarp forest can consist of many different species of Dipterocarpaceae, but not all of the same species. Trees of the same species are very seldom found growing close together. This bio diversity and separation of the species prevents mass contamination and die-off from disease or insect infestation. Bio diversity also insures that there will be enough pollinators to take care of each species' needs. Animals depend on the staggered blooming and fruiting of rainforest plants to supply them with a year-round source of food.

There are four very distinct layers of trees in a tropical rain forest. These layers have been identified as the emergent, upper canopy, understory, and forest floor. Emergent trees are spaced wide apart, and are 100 to 240 feet tall with umbrella-shaped canopies that grow above the forest. Because emergent trees are exposed to drying winds, they tend to have small, pointed leaves. Some species lose their leaves during the brief dry season in monsoon rainforests. These giant trees have straight, smooth trunks with few branches. Their root system is very shallow, and to support their size they grow buttresses that can spread out to a distance of 30 feet. The upper canopy of 60 to 130 foot trees allows light to be easily available at the top of this layer, but greatly reduced any light below it. Most of the rainforest's animals live in the upper canopy. There is so much food available at this level that some animals never go down to the forest floor. The leaves have "drip spouts" that allows rain to run off. This keeps them dry and prevents mold and mildew from forming in the humid environment. The understory, or lower canopy, consists of 60 foot trees. This layer is made up of the trunks of canopy trees, shrubs, plants and small trees. There is little air movement. As a result the humidity is constantly high. This level is in constant shade. The forest floor is usually completely shaded, except where a canopy tree has fallen and created an opening. Most areas of the forest floor receive so little light that few bushes or herbs can grow there. As a result, a person can easily walk through most parts of a tropical rain forest. Less than 1 % of the light that strikes the top of the forest penetrates to the forest floor. The top soil is very thin and of poor quality. A lot of litter falls to the ground where it is quickly broken down by decomposers like termites, earthworms and fungi. The heat and humidity further help to break down the litter. This organic matter is then just as quickly absorbed by the trees' shallow roots

Infectious diseases unwittingly brought by the Europeans or transferred from the Bantus are taking their toll amongst the pygmies: in a typical community about 20% of the population is ill. They suffer particularly from malaria, eye diseases such as endemic river-blindness, intestinal worm diseases, framboesia, lung- and viral infections and from wounds which easily go septic in this tropical environment. Many children catch measles and suffer from polio and their mortality rate is very high. Adequate health care is expensive and local resources are extremely limited. The unique pygmy people need our support. With the help of the many friends of the pygmies around the globe we provide essential health-care and assistance in education and agriculture - but with more funds we could do so much more. A little money goes a very long way. For example, for only Euro 30, -- you can send a pygmy child to school for a whole year. We can pay the teacher and provide educational materials and medical care for the pupil. We need your support

Pygmies - page 2

Why Do We Need To Conserve?One answer is very simple. We need to conserve to make certain we have resources for ourselves and for people in the future. Conservation will allow future generations to enjoy natural resources such as clean rivers and lakes, wilderness areas, a diverse wildlife population, healthy soil, and clean air. Resources Are Necessary for Life! Many natural resources are necessary for our survival. It may be difficult to imagine that we could ever run out of fresh water, clean air, and good soil for growing food. But in some places this is already happening.

Using less paper, reusing paper, and recycling paper saves trees and water. Recycling aluminum cans will save money, resources, and prevent pollution. For example, it takes much less energy to recycle an aluminum soft drink can than it does to make a new one. Making energy uses up resources like oil and coal. So just by recycling the aluminum cans you use, you become an instant conservationist!

Using less paper, reusing paper, and recycling paper saves trees and water. Recycling aluminum cans will save money, resources, and prevent pollution. For example, it takes much less energy to recycle an aluminum soft drink can than it does to make a new one. Making energy uses up resources like oil and coal. So just by recycling the aluminum cans you use, you become an instant conservationist!