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The scarcity of wild places today is the theme of David Quammen's Wild Thoughts from Wild Places (New York: Scribner,
1998). [Buy from Amazon]
Worldwide rainforest fragmentation is documented by M. McKloskey in "Note on the Fragmentation of Primary
Rainforest," Ambio 22 (4), June: 250-51 1993 using analysis of satellite images.
Deforestation rates and tropical forest cover are taken from the latest State of the World's Forests 1999 (SOFO)
published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Australia's rainforest coverage during the most recent ice ages is discussed in M. Hopkins and P. Reddell (Australia's
CSIRO 1998) and van Osterzee (Where Worlds Collide, New York: Cornell University Press. 1997 [Purchase]). T.F. Flannery (The
Future Eaters, New York: Braziller 1995 [Purchase]) also discusses vegetation shifts wrought by climate change and human influences.
Van Osterzee (Where Worlds Collide, New York: Cornell University Press, 1997 [Buy from Amazon]), Quammen (The Song of the Dodo, New
York: Scribner 1996. [Buy from Amazon]), and Browne (The Secular Ark: Studies in the History of Biogeography, New Haven: Yale University
Press 1983 [Buy from Amazon]) provide an easily understandable review of the Wallace line biogeography including the current distribution
of flora and fauna in the region and the impact of changing sea levels. Rubeli (Tropical Rainforest in South-East
Asia, Kuala Lumpur: Tropical Press Sdn. Bhd., 1986.) discusses the link between flora of New Zealand, the Himalayas,
and Borneo.
The history of the Amazon River Basin is covered engagingly in Goulding (Amazon-The Flooded Forest, New York: Sterling
Publishing Co., Inc. 1990 [Buy from Amazon]).
The mechanism responsible for the worldwide decline in amphibian populations is debated by Lips ("Decline
of a montane amphibian fauna," Conservation Biology Vol. 12 No. 1 (106-117), Feb. 1998.), Sessions et. al.
(Sessions, S.K. Franssen, R.A., Horner, V.L., "Morphological Clues from Multilegged Frogs: Are Retinoids to
Blame?" Science 284 (5415) 1999), Tangley ("The Silence of the Frogs," U.S. World and News Report
8/3/98), and Tuxill ("The Latest News on the Missing Frogs," World Watch May/June 1998). For alternative
commentary from an unlikely source see M. Fumento ("With Frog Scare Debunked, It Isn't Easy Being Green,"
The Wall Street Journal 5/12/99).
The "Primary Cover versus Total Forest Cover" table is taken from Myers, N., "Tropical forests:
present status and future outlook," Climactic Change 19 (3-32), 1991.
Pearce correlates forest clearing in West Africa to falling precipitation in the African interior in "Lost
Forests Leave West Africa Dry," The New Scientist 1-18-97.
The Amazonian igapò is the subject of Goulding's Amazon-The Flooded Forest, New York: Sterling Publishing
Co.,Inc. 1990. [Buy from Amazon]
Brookfield, H., Potter, L., and Byron, Y. provide a short description of Indonesian peat forests in In Place of
the Forest: Environmental and Socio-economic Transformation in Borneo and the Eastern Malay Peninsula (New York:
United Nations University Press, 1995), while T. Nishizawa and J. I. Uitto, eds. (The Fragile Tropics of Latin
America: Sustainable Management of Changing Environments, New York: United Nations University Press, 1995) review
Latin American forest types.
Threats to mangrove forest from shrimp aquaculture and oil activities are examined in Moffat, D. and Lindén,
O., "Perception and Reality: Assessing Priorities for Sustainable Development in the Niger River Delta,"
Ambio Vol. 24 No. 7-8 (527-538), Dec. 1995; and Boyd, C.E. and Clay, J.W., "Shrimp Aquaculture and the Environment"
Scientific American. Vol. 278, No. 6 June 1998, respectively.
"Rainforest" is used interchangeably with "rain forest" on this site. "Jungle" is generally not used.
Recent news
Beef consumption fuels rainforest destruction (02/16/2009)
Nearly 80 percent of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon results from cattle ranching, according to a new report by Greenpeace. The finding confirms what Amazon researchers have long known – that Brazil's rise to become the world's largest exporter of beef has come at the expense of Earth's biggest rainforest.
How to save the Amazon rainforest (01/04/2009)
Environmentalists have long voiced concern over the vanishing Amazon rainforest, but they haven't been particularly effective at slowing forest loss. In fact, despite the hundreds of millions of dollars in donor funds that have flowed into the region since 2000 and the establishment of more than 100 million hectares of protected areas since 2002, average annual deforestation rates have increased since the 1990s, peaking at 73,785 square kilometers (28,488 square miles) of forest loss between 2002 and 2004. With land prices fast appreciating, cattle ranching and industrial soy farms expanding, and billions of dollars' worth of new infrastructure projects in the works, development pressure on the Amazon is expected to accelerate. Given these trends, it is apparent that conservation efforts alone will not determine the fate of the Amazon or other rainforests. Some argue that market measures, which value forests for the ecosystem services they provide as well as reward developers for environmental performance, will be the key to saving the Amazon from large-scale destruction. In the end it may be the very markets currently driving deforestation that save forests.
Amazon rainforest damage surges 67% in 2008 (12/20/2008)
The area of rainforest in the process of being deforested — razed but not yet cleared — surged in the Brazilian Amazon during 2008, according to new figures released by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE). The announcement comes shortly after the Brazilian government reported a 4 percent increase in forest clearing for the year. Using an advanced satellite system that tracks changes in vegetation cover INPE found that 24,932 square kilometers of Amazon forest was damaged between August 2007 and July 2008, an increase of 10,017 square kilometers -- 67 percent -- over the prior year.
Cutting deforestation can fight climate change, reduce poverty and conflict (09/24/2008)
Forest conservation can play a critical role in efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and alleviate poverty, said a prominent group of politicians, development experts, and environmental NGOs meeting in New York City to discuss U.S. climate policy.
Future threats to the Amazon rainforest (07/31/2008)
Between June 2000 and June 2008, more than 150,000 square kilometers of rainforest were cleared in the Brazilian Amazon. While deforestation rates have slowed since 2004, forest loss is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. This is a look at past, current and potential future drivers of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.
