Tropical rainforests are rapidly disappearing throughout South America, Central America, Africa and Asia. Answers must be found to the many complex problems that contribute to the tropical forest destruction. Experts, such as biologists, botanists, ecologists, environmentalists, climatologists, futurists and population growth experts, raise serious questions about the immediate, and long term, impact deforestation will have on the planet Earth.
Commercial loggers, ranchers/plantation owners, coffee and fruit growers, rubber tappers, miners, drug cartels, indigenous tribes and subsistence farmers have all shaped the tropical forest as we know it today. Economics is a driving force in the deforestation of the tropical forests. The "harvesting" of fruits, oils, raw materials for drugs and medicines, commercial logging, ranching and small scale farming take their toll. To understand the tropical forest, its diversity and the role it plays in our global community, we must also understand the major economic players and the ecosystem they impact.
