They are also a vital source of building materials and firewood. But almost all of them are under threat. We are losing forest at a rate of 375 km 2 a day an area the size of Greece each year. Causes include urban development, clearance for agriculture, fuel wood collection, timber exploitation, fires and submersion of forests in lakes created by hydro-electric dams.
Deforestation contributes to desertification, global warming, poverty and loss of beauty.
More than half the Central American rainforest has gone. The Amazon will not last to the end of the 21st century if the current rate of cutting it down continues. The remaining old-growth forests are found mostly in the Amazon rainforest, Central Africa, Southeast Asia, Canada and the Russian Federation. But they are threatened with logging, mining and development. My parents told me the forest is sacred.