Bener Meriah is one of the districts in Aceh Province, where this area is dominated by pine and tropical forests, but currently, excessive encroachment of protected forests for plantations threatens forest sustainability and also causes forest conditions that are vulnerable to disasters such as landslides and floods, especially during high rainfall.

Hello, my friends, wherever you are, I hope you are all healthy and happy so you can go about your daily activities as usual. I hope you all have a wonderful day.

So, in this blog post, I've decided to write my entry for the February contest, the second of its kind this year held within the #amazingnature community.

First of all, I'd like to thank my friend @biologistbrito for creating one of his blogs as a way to glean an idea of ​​what an ideal post for this month's contest would look like. Honestly, I personally found his entry very helpful, as it gave me a glimpse of how to create an engaging blog for this February contest.

I also want to invite my friends @alexwilliam and @dreamrona to participate in this contest held within our beloved community. I think this is a very interesting contest for you to enter.

Okay, my friends. Please continue to follow my blog, as this is my entry for this February contest, themed Tropical Forests

What is a Tropical Forest, and why is that the theme I chose for this month's Kostes?

My country is Indonesia, which is located on the equator. As we know, along the equator, there are many tropical rainforest areas, one of which is located in Bener Meriah, a district in Aceh Province.

So, a few days ago, I traveled to this area. Of course, my main goal was to enjoy the natural scenery and also to see what the area was like after the disaster that struck my area a few months ago. If you want to see the severity of this natural disaster, you can tag #banjirsumatera on social media and see the damage.

My friends... My country, Indonesia, has the third largest tropical rainforest in the world. Unfortunately, this forest is vulnerable to damage, one of which is in the Bener Meriah area. I personally witnessed this damage, even though tropical rainforests are very functional and play a vital role in maintaining climate balance.

How Can We Find the Characteristics of Tropical Forests?

My friends... The main and easily identifiable characteristic of tropical forests is their high rainfall throughout the year. You can see this rainfall throughout the year, especially in the afternoons. As in the pictures above, I was in a pine forest, which is also part of the tropical rainforest area in Bener Meriah. The situation (in the pictures) was in the afternoon, when rain had begun to fall, accompanied by a light drizzle, and fog began to envelop the area.

Then, another easily identifiable characteristic of tropical rainforests is that the sun shines year-round, and the temperature changes from month to month are relatively small.

My friend.... I also need to say that the tropical rainforest area in Bener Meriah is located at a high altitude in a hilly and mountainous area, with a cool and comfortable temperature during the day, ranging from 22 to 28 degrees Celsius, and at night 16 to 17 degrees Celsius, as is the typical tropical rainforest climate.

Now we talk about the benefits, what are the benefits of tropical rainforests?

When it comes to benefits, tropical rainforests are crucial to the world. I'm sure you've often heard discussions that forests are the lungs of the world. Furthermore, tropical rainforests store hundreds of billions of tons of carbon, protect against floods and droughts, stabilize the soil, and most importantly, provide a home for wildlife.

My friends... The ecosystem within a tropical rainforest is a fragile one, with each component unable to stand alone. Therefore, if even one component is disturbed, the entire ecosystem will become unbalanced. Therefore, I urge all of you in this community to work together to protect the tropical rainforest, if it exists in any of my friendly countries.

As I mentioned above, a few months ago, a natural disaster occurred in my area, including flash floods and landslides. The worst-hit area was the tropical rainforest in Bener Meriah, which I visited this time.

This raises a question for me: was it solely due to a natural disaster?

Finally, What Are the Impacts of Tropical Forest Destruction?

My friend..... The natural disasters that have occurred in my area over the past few months are not merely natural disasters, but rather nature's way of expressing its anger at our actions, which have caused wanton destruction to the forest.

Why do I dare to say this? Because, during my trip to Bener Meriah, I saw several barren areas, deforested and cleared for land by irresponsible individuals. Furthermore, the rivers I passed had all their large trees cut down, and along the riverbanks were illegal mines. If you also read some articles about #naturaldisasters, Sumatranfloods, you will surely discover what is happening behind these disasters.

However, all of you who follow my blog can see that this destruction is evidence of the government's failure to protect the Bener Meriah tropical rainforest.

These are some short posts from me on this blog, along with a few photos I took with my cell phone. This is also my entry for a contest held by the Extraordinary Community in February.

For this contest, I chose the theme of forests, specifically tropical forests.

Also, on this occasion, I would like to invite all my friends in this beloved community to work together to preserve forests, especially those categorized as protected forests and pristine forests. Change must begin with small changes within ourselves to have a significant impact in the future.

And here are some images that show that what happened in my area a few months ago wasn't simply a natural disaster, but rather nature's way of expressing its anger at our actions in destroying the forest. In these images, you can see logs carried by flash floods, some of which look very neat, not simply carried by the river current. You can also see trees that have been felled along the river, even though these large trees play a crucial role during times of heavy rainfall and the tropical rainforest entering the rainy season. This was once a beautiful area where we felt so close to nature when we were here, but now that beauty has disappeared before our eyes and has turned into destruction.

That's all for this post. I hope you all enjoyed and enjoyed what I've shared.

Leave your comments, support, and input, which means a lot to me so I can create a better blog in the future.

Greetings everyone. See you in my next blog.

About the author

Maulizar Mawardi or better known as @antonydossantos. I am a student. Like taking pictures, but not a professional photographer, insect lover, nature lover, looking for momentum is my hobby.