The Amazon Rainforest Deforestation Impact

The Amazon rain forest is disappearing at an alarming rate.
Previously the forest covered 14% of earth’s surface and now it is only about 6%. By this speed the forest will disappear within 40 years.

The main reasons for deforestation are logging of tropical hardwoods for exportation (like teak and mahagony, timber, ply wood), cattle grazing, farming, road building, hydroelectric dams, mining.
Another problem is damage due to reduced rainfall caused by global warming.

The World Wildlife Fund states that the point of no return, from which recovery will be impossible, is only 15 to 25 years away.

Photo: Alberto Cesar/ Greenpeace/AP