About this site
Providing tropical forest news, statistics, photos, and information, rainforests.mongabay.com is the world's most popular rainforest site. [more]
Changing Times, Changing Forests
In 1997, the widespread fires in tropical rainforests around the globe illustrated that drought can affect rainforests,
especially those that have been degraded by logging and agricultural conversion. Such practices alter the forest
canopy coverage, subjecting the usually humid rainforest microclimate to penetrating sunlight that dries out the
forest interior. Grassy and bushy growth in recent forest clearings adds to the fire threat. The combination of
this forest degradation and the unusually strong el Nino of 1997-98 made 1997 the year of the forest fire in the
tropics. Studies by the Woods Hole Research Center indicate that as much as 50% of the Amazon rainforest is dangerously
flammable and could go up in smoke should agricultural fires spread.
"Rainforest" is used interchangeably with "rain forest" on this site. Same for "rainforests" and "rain forests". "Jungle" is generally not used.
Recent news
Amazon deforestation rate falls to lowest on record (8/10/2007) Deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon for the previous year were the lowest on record, according to preliminary figures released by INPE, Brazil's National Institute of Space Research.
Lowland rainforest less diverse than previously thought (8/9/2007) While rainforests are the world's libraries of biodiversity, species richness may be more evenly distributed in some forests than in others, reports an extensive new study by an international team of entomologists and botanists. The work, published in the current issue of the journal Nature, has important implications for forest management and conservation strategies.
Experts: parks effectively protect rainforest in Peru (8/9/2007) High-resolution satellite monitoring of the Amazon rainforest in Peru shows that land-use and conservation policies have had a measurable impact on deforestation rates. The research is published in the August 9, 2007, on-line edition of Science Express.
