The rain forests are disappearing. Fast. Researchers say that an acre and a half of rain forest is lost every second of every day.
Loggers cut down all the trees on huge amounts of rain forest. Ranchers burn enormous areas to create grazing land for cattle. Governments have pushed poor people from crowded cities to move to the forest. There they are told to practice slash-and-burn farming. This method works when small groups of people do it. But it is disastrous when large numbers do it. They have to move on to new land every two or three years. That destroys rain forest, which is very slow to recover. Scientists estimate that every day, 135 plant, animal, or insect species go extinct because of rain forest destruction.
