Every 20 minutes an area of rainforest the size of New York's Central Park is destroyed.

The thick layers of vegetation provide a choice of habitats for the wildlife of the rainforests many exotic animals are unique to the rainforests some are very rare and endangered.

If deforestation carries on at its present rate, there will be no rainforest left on earth within a 100 years.

Rainforest's help a great deal in regulating the world's climate and atmosphere. The broad leaf trees of the rainforests absorb carbon dioxide from the air and release oxygen. With fewer rainforests less carbon dioxide is being absorbed. More carbon dioxide means that more heat from the sun stays locked up in the atmosphere causing the devastating greenhouse effects.

Because these same broad leaf tree's and plants actually do absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and release oxygen they are helping to slow down the green house effect. As more and more rainforest's are cut down, so they will help less and less.

The Mighty Amazon Rainforest is referred to by many as "The Lungs of the World" because of the wonderful job it does filtering out the harmful and noxious gases. It has been estimated by scientists that this one rainforest alone is responsible for supplying about 35% of the worlds oxygen requirements. Yet companies still cut it or burn it down.

Question/ Does the earth have enough rainforests left to produce oxygen, or is it too late?

No it is not too late, indeed many of the major sources of sustainable rainforests in the northern hemisphere and the more temperate forest's and the Scandinavian forest's are actually growing, because they have implemented a policy where they are planting more tree than they are removing. That is sustainable regeneration of forest lands.

so it is not felt that the oxygen balance of the planet is part of the jeopardy it is greater concern to see what's happening in other parts of the world where the hardwood forests are being torn down.

An amazing 2,500 acres of rainforest are being destroyed every single hour.

The Rainforests are scattered in a broad band along the earth's equator. They range from the forests bordering the Great Barrier Reef in Australia to the forest of Central America. The largest is the Amazonia, which covers an area of over 5 million square miles. But it is being eaten away by logging land clearance for ranching and farming mining and damming and for new roads.

When the illegal logger's move into an area to bribe the locals with trinkets and effectively steal the huge Mahogany trees by the truck load they have to fell approximately 30 other tree's of all types just to get one Mahogany tree out. These felled tree's are then just left to rot where they lay.

With so much to offer it is an international disaster that the rainforest is being eaten up at such an alarming rate with some timber being used to produce paper for stationary and packaging.

Already, over half the worlds rainforests have been cut down.

Mahogany and Teak are rainforest woods that are popular in the production of furniture.

The population of America spends at least $2 Billion on tropical wood products including furniture and matches.

Throughout the world rainforests are being destroyed to make way for civilised man to grow crops to provide timber and to develop the land.

In the last ten years, then amount of wood shipped from South America to other countries is equivalent to a 600,000 acre forest.

Although the problem surrounding deforestation of the rainforest is the most severe, the problem is occurring elsewhere in the world with dramatic results. All over the world forests are being destroyed at an alarming rate.

As the world's population grows more space is needed to provide land to build upon.

In some parts of the world forests are being cut down and the land cleared to make way for houses, offices and factories. This in itself is a profitable process because the wood that is cut down is sold to supply timber to paper manufactories, building industries and the furniture trade.

In the very hot and dry regions of the world, the rapid rate at which the forests are disappearing are causing deserts to expand.

Under normal circumstances trees absorb the water flowing down the hillside. This water contains the vital nutrients, which they need to survive. In places where they have been cut down this water flows down hillsides gathering topsoil on its way.

There is nothing to absorb the water and prevent it flowing straight into the seas rivers and lakes. The arrival of the water into the river and lakes, upsets the natural balance of acidity. This disturbance causes the fish and other wildlife to die.