Destruction of the Rain Forest

Imagine a world without the rain forest. Soon it could could be a reality. Many people are not aware of how fast the rain forests are being wiped out. An estimated fifty million acres per year are disappearing.

There are many factors involved in the destruction of the rain forests. One of them is a clearing technique called "slash and burn". Farmers cut down the trees, then they burn the underbrush. The ashes give nutrients to the soil. These nutrients only last two to seven years, so the farmer must slash and burn another site. There is both a positive and a negative side to this method. The positive side is that it opens up a sunny forest gap that can later fill with new plants. The negative side is a growing population and lack of land is putting pressure on the farmers to produce crops. This leads the farmers to re-cut patches too soon. Patches are usually too large and close together, so there's not much forest left to re-seed the forest gap that farmers cut down.

There are many more factors to the destruction of the rain forest, such as harvesting of timber and clearing for cattle ranching.

The rain forests are disappearing. Once they are gone, they are gone forever. Only if everybody pitches in, will the rain forests be saved. It's up to you.