You hope to buy a tin roof to replace the grass thatch. You would also like to build a family outhouse so you no longer need to use the community outhouse down by the river. You've cleared several more hectares of primary forest to grow cash crops to sell at the market. You've found that freshly-cleared land produces more crops with fewer weeds. You're tempted to clear more land each year to ensure high crop yields, but you also want to preserve some of the primary rainforest on your land.
Primary forest is a valuable source of natural medicines.
It's also an important part of your culture. Coffee from your fields is sold throughout Ecuador. One hectare of land produces between 120 to 250 pounds of coffee annually. Coffee prices change often, so it's hard to predict exactly how much you will earn from it. Maize is the original species of corn, native to the Americas.