Farmers in rainforest countries are often poor and cannot afford to buy land. Instead, these farmers clear rainforests land to grow their crops. Because tropical rainforest soil is so poor in nutrients, farmers cannot reuse the same land year after year. In following years, farmers just clear more land, destroying the forest piece by piece. Ranching also causes destruction of the rainforests.
Ranchers clear large areas of rainforest to become pastures for their cattle.
This land does not cost very much, so they can sell cattle at low prices. Because it is profitable, ranchers continue to clear rainforest land so they can raise and sell more cattle. During the 1980s, about 16.9 million hectares of tropical rainforest was cut down and replaced with farms and grazing land for cattle. The third major traditional reason for destruction of the rainforests is logging. Trees from the rainforest are used for building houses, making furniture, and providing pulp for paper products, such as newspapers and magazines.