d Veilleux WWW).Without the rainforests, these and other medicines may not exist. In 1991, a group of physicians in the Netherlands realized that losing the rainforest would be an enormous loss of resources for medicine, so they began the Rainforest Medical Foundation (RMF). The RMF works to save the rainforest and preserve the knowledge of the indigenous peoples (Rainforest Medical Foundation WWW). With the current rate of destruction in the rainforest, medicinals will not even be available for indigenous use (O’Connor WWW). In many situations, the local medicine may work better than the imported expensive western medicine. The knowledge of indigenous peoples is quickly being lost. The traditional healers have extensive knowledge of plants, but due to the modernization of cultures there is a lack of interest and no apprentice to pass on the knowledge. With the help of RMF and other ethnobotanists, the knowledge may survive (Rainforest Medical Foundation WWW).Many people believe that the rainforest does contain plants with the cures to many awful diseases. It has been proven by the ethnobotanists and their research that the rainforests do contain some beneficial resources. No major discoveries for AIDS or cancer have been found yet, but at the rate that ethnobotanists are researching and discovering new treatments for illnesses, they may someday find the major ones. For right now, the discoveries that are being made are already helping many people. ...
