Global Scale Threats
Because cloud forests need very specific environmental conditions to survive, global warming is an especially serious problem. Other conservation issues, such as increasing UV exposure and introduction of exotic species, also require global cooperation to solve. Still more potential threats to cloud forests are supported by the global market, such as the dairy/beef industry and coffee plantations. Responsible farmers may manage their land to reduce impact on the surrounding forests, and it is essential that people around the world purchase those products that do not contribute to destruction of cloud forests.

Benefits to Global Climate
While they occupy land in only a few geographical areas, the loss of cloud forests has the potential to impact the world as a whole. As are all forest systems, cloud forests are large carbon reservoirs. Trees, epiphytes, and other plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use it to form new stems, leaves, and roots. When a forest is cleared (especially if it is burned) the stored carbon dioxide is released rapidly to the atmosphere, where it contributes to global warming. Cloud forests may also affect the global and regional climates in other, unknown ways, perhaps through impact on atmospheric moisture and similar issues.

Bioprospecting - The search for new treatments for diseases
As is true of poorly understood biological communities throughout the world, it is likely that as of yet unknown chemical substances produced by cloud forest plants or insects may yield useful pharmaceuticals for the treatment of human disease. For example, the anti-malarial medicine Quinine is derived from the bark of Cinchona trees that grow in South American cloud forests. The more species that an ecosystem has, the greater the potential for finding useful substances in that ecosystem - and cloud forests are very species-rich ecosystems. At this point, scientists have not even found all of the species present in these ecosystems; they certainly do not know what new and potentially useful compounds they may produce. The science of bioprospecting is still very new, and it may take decades of study to discover that a species of epiphyte produces a substance that destroys cancer cellsif the forest where it lives has been protected.

Social value
Sociologists and economists agree that the human spirit benefits from the knowledge of rare and unique environments elsewhere in the world. Just like we derive value and happiness from knowing that elephants and lions roam the plains of Africa, and penguins swim the waters of Antarctica, people around the world benefit from knowing that intense biodiversity and rare animals, birds, and plants exist amongst the dense forests of the world, including the cloud forests that are home to species found nowhere else on Earth.