Saturday, January 31, 2009 Mon Jan 12, 2009 1:06pm EST By
Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - The world's tropical rainforests are making a
comeback, but young vegetation may not be able to sustain as
much diverse wildlife or lock up nearly as much climate-warming
carbon dioxide as old trees did, scientists report. The
rainforest debate has raged publicly for decades, and more
recently has been the subject of behind-the-scenes ferment among
conservation scientists. It is the main topic of a Smithsonian
symposium on Monday at the Smithsonian National Museum of
Natural History in Washington. These discussions are taking
place as the international community is trying to figure out how
to stem global warming. Because tropical forests sequester the
greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, they are considered an essential
part of the solution. About 135,000 square miles (350,000 square
kilometers) of the original forested areas that were cut down by
humans are growing back, according to Greg A