Rainforests cover 2 percent of the earth's surface, or 7 percent of its land mass.
Tropical rainforests are the Earth's oldest continuous ecosystem. Fossil records show that the forests of South East Asia have existed for 70 to 100 million years.
Rainforests are being destroyed at an estimated rate of about one
football-field-sized area per second.
The soil has few nutrients so it makes poor farmland. An area of rainforest cleared for farming or grazing cattle becomes unproductive in only a few years.
Tropical rainforests are the most diverse ecosystems on earth. A four-square mile pat…
