It experiences maximum biological diversity and complexity. A secondary forest is a primary forest that has been cut down and then replanted. It takes nearly 1,000 years for a secondary forests to evolve back into primary forests. Just 3 years after deforestation, the soil loses half its organic content. In Latin America, two-thirds of deforestation is permanent.
Deforestation causes landslides, rockfalls, and increased earthquake damage.
With the relentless march of destruction, the ecological integrity of many areas is disintegrating - causing severe soil loss, aggravating droughts and floods, disrupting water supplies, and reducing land productivity. For every tree that falls in the forest, another 50 are fatally damaged. Japan uses a massive amount of tropical hardwood to make disposable articles like chopsticks, paper, and scaffolding. Rainforests rarely have a chance to regenerate because logging roads pave the way for other settlers to invade and destroy it. Most of the settlers who come to the rainforest are impoverished farmers.