These species, in turn, feed the rain forest, littering the forest floor with droppings and decay to feed the trees and undergrowth. Flowers are pollinated, so that plant species survive. Edge effects impede this process. This network of small access roads allows hunters and non-native animals and predators access to a much larger portion of rain forest. To say the Amazon Rain Forest is threatened by deforestation means that we must consider more than just destruction of habitat, which takes its toll on thousands of acres of rain forest in Brazil each year.
Fragmentation causes even more harm.
Skold and Myer point out that the section of the Amazon affected by fragmentation grew from 208,000 square kilometers in 1978 to 588,000 square kilometers in 1988. Edge effects worsen the impact of deforestation, and are difficult to measure. It's as if the rain forest is a giant cake. If the baker cuts a chunk out of the middle, another chunk a couple of inches away, and several strips down the sides and at other random places, the cake dries up before it can be enjoyed. Efforts to protect the Amazon Rain Forest and to protect the species who live there must take into account how deforestation occurs.