Tropical rainforests are home to more species than all other land biomes combined. Rain Forests are one of the most diverse places on earth, containing the most species of living things, much more than anywhere else, and most have yet to be identified. All rain forests are located on earth's "green belt", the area roughly around the equator that covers all the area from Mexico, the northern area of South America, Africa, India, stretching out to Indonesia, and the northern tip of Australia all the way to New Guinea. This area is heavily covered with lush trees and plants, and is encompassed with life. .
Is economic development of greater value than the natural resources of the rainforest? The rainforest does provide many resources like timber, for cattle and agriculture, and for subsistence cropping by rainforest inhabitants. It has also provided natural medicines and special compounds that have proven to be very important in medical studies. Although In 1980, the estimated amount of rain forests in the world was 40,000 square miles. This number decreases each year by roughly 1,000 square miles due to construction and the resources being used for profit. Commercial logging is the leading factor in rainforest destruction, both through extraction & road building.
Today rainforests cover less than 7% of the Earth's land area. Before human intervention, the rainforests covered 15% of the Earth's land area. It took the Earth billions of years to arrive at the state of equilibrium that existed only a few thousand years ago. Half of the total loss of rainforests has occurred in this century. Twenty five percent of the total loss of rainforests has occurred in the last twenty years. Some areas of tropical rainforest have escaped glaciation for 65 million years. This has allowed these forests to develop an array of life unmatched in any other ecosystem on Earth. Somewhere between half and 90% of all species on Earth are found in rainforests.
