The exact rate at which rainforests are presently being destroyed is not known accurately. Most estimates are based on satellite images or government assessments, which may be inaccurate.

However, the most recent global estimates suggest that around 150,000 square kilometres of tropical rainforest, equivalent to the size of England and Wales, is destroyed every year. In addition, a similar area is damaged or degraded. On average, the rate of destruction increased during the late 1990s, due to extensive and deliberate destruction of forests in Brazil and Indonesia.

The reasons for forest destruction vary greatly from continent to continent and from country to country.

During the late 1990s, the country experiencing the greatest destruction of rainforests was Indonesia. The catastrophic fires which have repeatedly occurred in the Indonesian regions such as Kalimantan, Sumatra and Sulawesi have been blamed on 'slash-and-burn farmers', but scientific research has shown that fires take hold only where the forest has previously been opened up by logging companies.

In Congo Basin countries such as Cameroon, Congo and Gabon, logging is the principal threat; it is estimated that, every year, 137,000 hectares are logged in these three countries alone. Although loggers often only take the few most valuable trees, leaving others behind, the 'selective' removal of trees can still be very damaging to the remaining forest. It is estimated that one hectare of rainforest has to be felled to log just one mahogany tree.

Where logging roads go, people usually follow; although the roads themselves may not cause massive deforestation, the settlements and farms that follow in its wake often do.

Some areas of rainforest are rich in minerals, including oil, gold, aluminium, iron and cobalt. Seismic testing for oil disturbs wildlife and, as with the logging industry, the cutting of tracks and routes for oil pipelines or for access to mines can open the forest for people wishing to occupy and clear the land for farming.

The largest cause of forest loss is clearance for commercial and subsistence farming. Huge plantations of rubber trees, banana and African oil palm now stand where rainforests once grew. In Brazil, large areas have been cleared in order to plant soy beans. Subsistence farmers - often colonists from other areas who do not know the farming techniques needed for fragile forest environments - will occupy the less fertile areas where the soil is soon depleted, requiring further forest to be cleared.

Governments and corporations tend to blame rainforest destruction on the actions of these subsistence farmers and settlers. However, in countries such as Brazil and Indonesia, government schemes have deliberately encouraged the 'colonisation' of rainforests and, throughout the tropics, small-scale farmers have been forced off their own lands and into poorer forest areas by large agricultural companies.

International development agencies, such as the World Bank and the European Commission have, in the past, funded projects such as resettlement schemes, roads and dams which have led to the destruction of rainforests. Although such organisations now mostly have policies aimed at protecting the environment in the countries in which they work, these 'safeguards' are not always enforced in practice.

• › Climate Change
• › Hidden Rainforest Medicines
• › Indigenous Knowledge
• › Indigenous People
• › Rainforest Resources
• › Rainforest Timber
• › Rainforest Wildlife
• › Rainforests in the Home
• › The Destruction of Rainforests