The Rainforests are being destroyed, daily at alarming rates. The deforestation is caused by three main factors: Commercial Logging, Non-commercial Farming Operations and Commercial Agricultural Development, there are also many minor factors, but the biggest of these is Cocaine production. Many sources pinpoint commercial logging as the primary culprit in tropical rainforest destruction. Logging damages the rainforest directly through the removal of commercially valuable timber species such as mahogany, rosewood, meranti, kapok and teak. Indirect damage occurs in several ways. As the desired trees fall, they pull down surrounding lianas and epiphytic growth (vines); a single tree and its epiphytes may harbor as many ant species as the British Isles. Injury to nearby trees also occurs. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that for every tree intently cut down, another 50 are fatally damaged. Another major indirect effect of logging is the increased access to the forest that logging roads provide for people. Influx of landless farmers then results in more forest degradation due to their shifting agricultural efforts.Non-Commercial farming operations are the another cause for deforestation. These exist in two forms. One called slash and burn agriculture, which occurs when people cut, burn, and farm a small patch of forest. Generally, the farming is successful for two or three years. Then, if the farm is on nutrient poor soil, the area must be abandoned and process repeated in another area of forest. Originally, many indigenous rainforest tribes in various regions of the world practice slash and burn agriculture without long-term damage to the forest; their numbers were small and this allowed for long fallow periods. In the farmed areas during which the forest would recover. However, as populations have increased in the tropics, more areas are farmed and these areas are not allowed sufficient fallow time to regenerate. A seco...
