The rain forests are rapidly disappearing. According to researchers, an acre and a half of rain forest is lost every second of every day.
Loggers have cut down huge numbers of rain forest trees. Ranchers have burned enormous areas of the forest to create grazing land for cattle. Governments have encouraged poor people from crowded cities to move to the forest and practice slash-and-burn farming. This method of cultivation works when small groups of people do it. But it is disastrous when practiced by large numbers of farmers who have to move on to new land every two or three years. Scientists estimate that 135 plant, animal, or insect species are made extinct every day by rain forest destruction.
