By: Courtney Bailey

The cutting, clearing, and removal of rainforest or related ecosystems into less bio-diverse ecosystems.

Deforestation is also one of the contributing factors to global climate change.

Brazil is home to the world-renowned Amazon Rainforest and the basin it occupies, deforestation has become a major cause for concern in this area. Every minute, vast proportions are being torn down for timber, development and agriculture.

Brazil has always been home to an array of animal and plant species. However, because of hunting and the destruction of habitat, Brazil’s natural animal life has experienced a huge decline in numbers.

Construction

Agriculture

Logging For Timber

Cattle ranching

Soil Erosion

Loss of Bio-Diversity

Disruption of the Water Cycle

This is a map showing the breakdown of annual Deforestation rate since 1990. As you can see Brazil has had the highest rate out of all the other countries.

Coastal Forest (East Africa) Southwe

st Forest (China)

Atlantic Forest (South America- Brazil)

California Floristic Province (North America)

For every tree that is cut down, plant two more in its place.

Employ a series of laws and rules to govern cutting down trees.

Recycle any and all paper products such as: paper pads, shopping bags, books, tissue paper, etc..

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITIES)

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)

Rainforest Action Network (RAN)

The net loss for the worlds forests is estimated at 12 to 15 million acres of land per year. That’s equivalent to 36 Football fields being destroyed per minute.

Rainforests once covered about 14 percent of the Earth, but have been reduced in size now to only about 6 percent of the Earth's surface.

We lose 147 plants and animals everyday due to deforestation.

At the current rate that we are cutting down forests, in about 100 years we will no longer have any existing rainforests anywhere in the world.

"Deforestation: Facts, Causes & Effects." LiveScience.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. <http://www.livescience.com/27692-deforestation.html>.

"Deforestation."National Geographic.N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. <http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/deforestation-overview/>.

"Global Warming Solutions: Stop Deforestation." Http://www.ucsusa.org/. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. <http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/solutions/stop-deforestation/>.

"BRAZIL." Brazil Environmental Issues. Brazil.org., n.d. Web. 21 May 2015. <http://www.brazil.org.za/environmental-issues.html>.