As land becomes less and less fertile, those who farm it or use it for its trees lose their source of livelihood. Human activity is killing off the variety of life. There are some 30 million species on Earth - this diversity of life around us is called biodiversity. It is from these biological resources that we obtain clothes, medicine, food and housing The greatest threat to biodiversity comes from the destruction of rainforests. In the Amazon, a single tree can contain 2000 unique species of animals.
Rainforests are also essential in maintaining the balance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
However, unmanaged logging and agriculture along with acid rain are destroying the rainforests. Member States of the United Nations stress that economic and environmental degradation are interrelated and that environmental protection in developing countries has to be viewed as an integral part of the development process. At the same time, consumption patterns and production in industrialized countries speed up environmental deterioration. To solve these problems there needs to be new levels of cooperation among nations - a global partnership. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, or the Earth Summit as it came to be known, was arguably one of the most significant landmarks in the understanding of sustainable development to date.