These are astronomical numbers, to think that is the size of the state Idaho. Such deforestation has an alarming affect, "it means the loss of a multiplicity of products: Food, fibers, medicine, dyes, gums, and resins" (Facklam 53). Not stated in Facklam's statistics are the effects to the wildlife of the areas as they are drive out of their natural habitat. What kind of condition will the Amazon be in if this trend continues? The answer, there might not be anything left of the rainforest by the year 2050. .
The groups that get the most blame are the loggers and miners who exploit the land. The purpose of the loggers is not to destroy every tree standing in their path and cash in on it, rather, the loggers are a picky. They are selective in the kind of trees they want. They prefer the hardwood trees such as the Balsa tree and Huaca tree. In the effort to attain these few types of trees, the loggers do more damage than needed. "Amazonian timbering typically extracts one tree per hectare [2.4 acres], but it does so with enormous damage. As logger move in with roads and skidders, they kill or damage more than 52% of those trees that remain" (Hecht 141). So it's not so much the logging itself that depletes the forests, but the process. These activities leave the forest vulnerable to fires and ruins their chances of new growth as they are missing the crucial elements around them. Thus changing the ecosystem.
Along with the loggers come miners seeking gold and other minerals found in the forest. Miners come in after the loggers to further strip the land of valuable resources. Mining also carries with it it's own ecological problems. For example, while mining, many of the deposits are returned to the river, which normally don't go there, like mercury. These rivers have become poisoned and polluted in some parts, killing fish and exposing those that live on and live off the river to diseases which they have no immunity to.