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Some claim that rainforests are being destroyed at an ever-quickening pace. [48] The London-based Rainforest Foundation notes that "the UN figure is based on a definition of forest as being an area with as little as 10% actual tree cover, which would therefore include areas that are actually savanna-like ecosystems and badly damaged forests". [49]
Swathes of the Amazon and Indonesian rainforest are regularly up in flames — often started deliberately by those clearing land or burning felled trees — that can sometimes spread uncontrollably.
Deforestation in the Maranhão state, Brazil, in July 2016. The Amazon rainforest, spanning an area of 3,000,000 km 2 (1,200,000 sq mi), is the world's largest rainforest.It encompasses the largest and most biodiverse tropical rainforest on the planet, representing over half of all rainforests.
Major environmental issues in DRC include deforestation, poaching, which threatens wildlife populations, water pollution and mining. A dense tropical rainforest in the DRC's central river basin and eastern highlands is bordered on the east by the Albertine Rift (the western branch of Africa's Great Rift System). It includes several of Africa's ...
The Amazon rainforest is a massive area, twice the size of India and sprawling across eight countries and one territory. The Amazon biome has lost more than 85 million hectares (211 million acres ...
Jungle burned for agriculture in southern Mexico. Tropical rainforests have received most of the attention concerning the destruction of habitat. From the approximately 16 million square kilometers of tropical rainforest habitat that originally existed worldwide, less than 9 million square kilometers remain today. [7]
Rainforests are the oldest ecosystems on earth. Rainforest plants and animals continue to evolve, developing into the most diverse and complex ecosystems on earth. Living in limited areas, most of these species are endemic, found nowhere else in the world. In tropical rainforests, an estimated 90% of the species of the ecosystem live in the canopy.
Tropical rainforests have been called the "jewels of the Earth" and the "world's largest pharmacy", because over one quarter of natural medicines have been discovered there. [2] Rainforests as well as endemic rainforest species are rapidly disappearing due to deforestation, the resulting habitat loss and pollution of the atmosphere. [3]