AR-News: (US) Loss of bamboo threatens rare animal species

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

CNN.com 
 
The fates of Asia's giant pandas are linked to bamboo.


LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Deforestation is endangering about one-third of 
the world's 1,200 bamboo species and threatening rare animals such as giant 
pandas and mountain gorillas that depend on the plants for food and protection.
A joint report released Tuesday by the United Nations Environment Program and 
the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan warned it would also harm a 
$2 billion a year bamboo industry and the millions of people who use the plants 
for food, housing, furniture and handicrafts.
"There are about 1,200 species of bamboo in the world and we think about a 
third of those may be threatened by the reduction of forest habitat within their 
ranges," Valerie Kapos, co-author of the study and ecologist at the U.N. 
Environment Program World Monitoring Center in Cambridge, England, told Reuters.
The report entitled "Bamboo Diversity" is the most comprehensive analysis to 
date of the impact of deforestation on bamboo species.



full story:
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/05/10/environment.bamboo.reut/ 


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    "The day may come when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those 
rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of 
tyranny. The question is not can they REASON, nor can they TALK, but can they 
SUFFER?" 
Jeremy Bentham 1748 - 1832 



         
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