RAINFOREST INFORMATION

A Place Out of Time: Tropical Rainforests and the Perils They Face - information on tropical forests, deforestation, and biodiversity

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE RAINFOREST

Rainforests are forest ecosystems characterized by high levels of rainfall, an enclosed canopy and high species diversity. While tropical rainforests are the best-known type of rainforest and the focus of this section of the web site, rainforests are actually found widely around the world, including temperate regions in Canada, the United States, and the former Soviet Union.

Tropical rainforests typically occur in the equatorial zone between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, latitudes that have warm temperatures and relatively constant year-round sunlight. Tropical rainforests merge into other types of forest depending on the altitude, latitude, and various soil, flooding, and climate conditions. These forest types form a mosaic of vegetation types which contribute to the incredible diversity of the tropics.

The bulk of the world's tropical rainforest occurs in the Amazon Basin in South America. The Congo Basin and Southeast Asia, respectively, have the second and third largest areas of tropical rainforest. Rainforests also exist on some the Caribbean islands, in Central America, in India, on scattered islands in the South Pacific, in Madagascar, in West and East Africa outside the Congo Basin, in Central America and Mexico, and in parts of South America outside the Amazon. Brazil has the largest extent of rainforest of any country on Earth.

Rainforests provide important ecological services, including storing hundreds of billions of tons of carbon, buffering against flood and drought, stabilizing soils, influencing rainfall patterns, and providing a home to wildlife and Indigenous people. Rainforests are also the source of many useful products upon which local communities depend.

While rainforests are critically important to humanity, they are rapidly being destroyed by human activities. The biggest cause of deforestation is conversion of forest land for agriculture. In the past subsistence agriculture was the primary driver of rainforest conversion, but today industrial agriculture — especially monoculture and livestock production — is the dominant driver of rainforest loss worldwide. Logging is the biggest cause of forest degradation and usually proceeds deforestation for agriculture.

Organization of this site

The rainforest section of Mongabay is divided into ten "chapters" (the original text for the site was a book, but has since been adapted for the web), with add-on content in the form of special focal sections (e.g. The Amazon, the Congo, REDD, New Guinea, Sulawesi, Forests in Brazil, etc), appendices, and other resources.

There is also a version of the site geared toward younger readers at kids.mongabay.com.

ABOUT THE RAINFOREST (SUMMARY)

RAINFOREST DISTRIBUTION AND CHARACTERISTICS

Each rainforest is unique, but there are certain features common to all tropical rainforests.

• Location: rainforests lie in the tropics.
• Rainfall: rainforests receive at least 80 inches (200 cm) of rain per year.
• Canopy: rainforests have a canopy, which is the layer of branches and leaves formed by closely spaced rainforest trees some 30 meters (100 feet) off the ground. A large proportion of the plants and animals in the rainforest live in the canopy.
• Biodiversity: rainforests have extraordinarily highs level of biological diversity or “biodiversity”. Scientists estimate that about half of Earth's terrestrial species live in rainforests.
• Ecosystem services: rainforests provide a critical ecosystem services at local, regional, and global scales, including producing oxygen (tropical forests are responsible for 25-30 percent of the world's oxygen turnover) and storing carbon (tropical forests store an estimated 229-247 billion tons of carbon) through photosynthesis; influencing precipitation patterns and weather; moderating flood and drought cycles; and facilitating nutrient cycling; among others.

The global distribution of tropical rainforests can be broken up into four biogeographical realms based roughly on four forested continental regions: the Afrotropical, the Australiasian, the Indomalayan/Asian, and the Neotropical. Just over half the world's rainforests lie in the Neotropical realm, roughly a quarter are in Africa, and a fifth in Asia.

These realms can be further divided into major tropical forest regions based on biodiversity hotspots, including:

1. Amazon: Includes parts of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela
2. Congo: Includes parts of Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of Congo
3. Australiasia: Includes parts of Australia, Indonesian half of New Guinea, Papua New Guinea
4. Sundaland: Includes parts of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore
5. Indo-Burma: Includes parts of Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam
6. Mesoamerica: Includes parts of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama
7. Wallacea: Sulawesi and the Maluku islands in Indonesia
8. West Africa: Includes parts of Benin, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Togo
9. Atlantic forest: Includes parts of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay
10. Choco: Includes parts of Colombia, Ecuador, Panama

Other countries that have large areas of rainforest include Bolivia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ecuador, Gabon, Guyana, India, Laos, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Congo, Suriname, and Venezuela.

Cover and loss by rainforest region

RAINFOREST STRUCTURE

Rainforests are characterized by a unique vegetative structure consisting of several vertical layers including the overstory, canopy, understory, shrub layer, and ground level. The canopy refers to the dense ceiling of leaves and tree branches formed by closely spaced forest trees. The upper canopy is 100-130 feet above the forest floor, penetrated by scattered emergent trees, 130 feet or higher, that make up the level known as the overstory. Below the canopy ceiling are multiple leaf and branch levels known collectively as the understory. The lowest part of the understory, 5-20 feet (1.5-6 meters) above the floor, is known as the shrub layer, made up of shrubby plants and tree saplings.

RAINFOREST BIODIVERSITY

Tropical rainforests support the greatest diversity of living organisms on Earth. Although they cover less than 2 percent of Earth’s surface, rainforests house more than 50 percent of the plants and animals on the planet.

THE RAINFOREST CANOPY

In the rainforest most plant and animal life is not found on the forest floor, but in the leafy world known as the canopy. The canopy, which may be over 100 feet (30 m) above the ground, is made up of the overlapping branches and leaves of rainforest trees. Scientists estimate that more than half of life in the rainforest is found in the trees, making this the richest habitat for plant and animal life.

The conditions of the canopy are markedly different from the conditions of the forest floor. During the day, the canopy is drier and hotter than other parts of the forest, and the plants and animals that live there have adapted accordingly. For example, because the amount of leaves in the canopy can make it difficult to see more than a few feet, many canopy animals rely on loud calls or lyrical songs for communication. Gaps between trees mean that some canopy animals fly, glide, or jump to move about in the treetops. Meanwhile plants have evolved water-retention mechanisms like waxy leaves.

Scientists have long been interested in studying the canopy, but the height of trees made research difficult until recently. Today the canopy is commonly accessed using climbing gear, rope bridges, ladders, and towers. Researchers are even using model airplanes and quadcopters outfitted with special sensors — conservation drones — to study the canopy.

The rainforest floor

The rainforest floor is often dark and humid due to constant shade from the leaves of canopy trees. The canopy not only blocks out sunlight, but dampens wind and rain, and limits shrub growth.

Despite its constant shade, the ground floor of the rainforest is the site for important interactions and complex relationships. The forest floor is one of the principal sites of decomposition, a process paramount for the continuance of the forest as a whole. It provides support for trees responsible for the formation of the canopy and is also home to some of the rainforest's best-known species, including gorillas, tigers, tapirs, and elephants, among others.

Rainforest waters

Tropical rainforests support some of the largest rivers in the world, like the Amazon, Mekong, Negro, Orinoco, and Congo. These mega-rivers are fed by countless smaller tributaries, streams, and creeks. For example, the Amazon alone has some 1,100 tributaries, 17 of which are over 1,000 miles long. Although large tropical rivers are fairly uniform in appearance and water composition, their tributaries vary greatly.

Rainforest waters are home to a wealth of wildlife that is nearly as diverse as the biota on land. For example, more than 5,600 species of fish have been identified in the Amazon Basin alone.

But like rainforests, tropical ecosystems are also threatened. Dams, deforestation, channelization and dredging, pollution, mining, and overfishing are chief dangers.

Rainforest people

Tropical rainforests have long been home to tribal peoples who rely on their surroundings for food, shelter, and medicines. Today very few forest people live in traditional ways; most have been displaced by outside settlers, have been forced to give up their lifestyles by governments, or have chosen to adopt outside customs.

Of the remaining forest people, the Amazon supports the largest number of Indigenous people living in traditional ways, although these people, too, have been impacted by the modern world. Nonetheless, Indigenous peoples' knowledge of medicinal plants remains unmatched and they have a great understanding of the ecology of the Amazon rainforest.

In Africa there are native forest dwellers sometimes known as pygmies. The tallest of these people, also called the Mbuti, rarely exceed 5 feet in height. Their small size enables them to move about the forest more efficiently than taller people.

There are few forest peoples in Asia living in fully traditional ways. The last nomadic people in Borneo are thought to have settled in the late 2000's. New Guinea and the Andaman Islands are generally viewed as the last frontiers for forest people in Asia and the Pacific.

Deforestation

In recent decades there has been an important shift in deforestation trends. Today export-driven industries are driving a bigger share of deforestation than ever before, marking a shift from previous decades, when most tropical deforestation was the product of poor farmers trying to put food on the table for their families. There are important implications from this change. While companies have a greater capacity to chop down forests than small farmers, they are more sensitive to pressure from environmentalists. Thus in recent years, it has become easier—and more ethical—for green groups to go after corporations than after poor farmers.

Rainforests are also threatened by climate change, which is contributing to droughts in parts of the Amazon and Southeast Asia. Drought causes die-offs of trees and dries out leaf litter, increasing the risk of forest fires, which are often set by land developers, ranchers, plantation owners, and loggers.

Rainforest importance

While rainforests may seem like a distant concern, they are critically important for our well-being. Rainforests are often called the lungs of the planet for their role in absorbing carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, and producing oxygen, upon which all animals depend for survival. Rainforests also stabilize climate, house incredible amounts of plants and wildlife, and produce nourishing rainfall all around the planet.

Rainforests:

• Help stabilize the world’s climate: Rainforests help stabilize the world’s climate by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Scientists have shown that excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from human activities is contributing to climate change. Therefore, living rainforests have an important role in mitigating climate change, but when rainforests are chopped down and burned, the carbon stored in their wood and leaves is released into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change.
• Provide a home to many plants and animals: Rainforests are home to a large number of the world’s plant and animals species, including many endangered species. As forests are cut down, many species are doomed to extinction.
• Help maintain the water cycle: The role of rainforests in the water cycle is to add water to the atmosphere through the process of transpiration (in which plants release water from their leaves during photosynthesis). This moisture contributes to the formation of rain clouds, which release the water back onto the rainforest. In the Amazon, 50-80 percent of moisture remains in the ecosystem’s water cycle. When forests are cut down, less moisture goes into the atmosphere and rainfall declines, sometimes leading to drought. Rainforests also have a role in global weather patterns. For example researchers have shown that forests in South America affect rainfall in the United States, while forests in Southeast Asia influence rain patterns in southeastern Europe and China. Distant rainforests are therefore important to farmers everywhere.
• Protect against flood, drought, and erosion: Rainforests have been compared to natural sponges, moderating flood and drought cycles by slowing run-off and contributing moisture to the local atmosphere. Rainforests are also important in reducing soil erosion by anchoring the ground with their roots. When trees are cut down there is no longer anything to protect the ground, and soils are quickly washed away with rain. On steep hillsides, loss of forest can trigger landslides.
• Are a source for medicines and foods and support forest-dependent people: People have long used forests as a source of food, wood, medicine, and recreation. When forests are lost, they can no longer provide these resources. Instead people must find other places to get these goods and services. They also must find ways to pay for the things they once got for free from the forest.

Rainforest conservation

Rainforests are disappearing very quickly. The good news is there are a lot of people who want to save rainforests. The bad news is that saving rainforests will be a challenge as it means humanity will need to shift away from business-as-usual practices by developing new policies and economic measures to creative incentives for preserving forests as healthy and productive ecosystems.

Over the past decade there has been considerable progress on several conservation fronts. Policymakers and companies are increasingly valuing rainforests for the services they afford, setting aside large blocks of forests in protected areas and setting up new financial mechanisms that compensate communities, state and local governments, and countries for conserving forests. Meanwhile, forest-dependent people are gaining more management control over the forests they have long stewarded. Large international companies are finally establishing policies that exclude materials sourced via deforestation. People are abandoning rural areas, leading to forest recovery in some planes.

But the battle is far from over. Growing population and consumption means that rainforests will continue to face intense pressures. At the same time, climate change threatens to dramatically alter temperatures and precipitation patterns, potentially pushing some forests toward critical tipping points.

Thus the future of the world's rainforests in very much in our hands. The actions we take in the next 20 years will determine whether rainforests, as we currently know them, are around to sustain and nourish future generations of people and wildlife.

The Latest News on Rainforests

‘Sham’ federal firings suspended, but NOAA’s future remains uncertain (Mar 14 2025)
On March 13, U.S federal Judge James Bredar issued an order requiring the Trump administration reinstate thousands of probationary federal employees recently fired as part of government downsizing. The reinstatement order applies across 18 agencies including the Department of Commerce, which administers the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA, which had already fired roughly […]

A Cameroon stadium spurs one community’s fight over ancestral lands (Mar 14 2025)
- On the outskirts of Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, members of the local Yanda community say the construction of a large multisports complex has left them without their traditional forest lands, where their ancestors were buried.
- The forest previously provided Yanda families with trees, plants and animals for their food and medicine.
- The land, they say, was razed for the construction of the Paul Biya Omnisports Complex, which hosted the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations; today, the stadium stands empty.
- The Yanda community is asking the government for compensation, but the people have no formal titles to their ancestral lands — a common problem for traditional communities in similar situations seeking land rights or compensation for their eviction.

Critically endangered parakeets get a new home on New Zealand island (Mar 14 2025)
Conservation authorities and groups, along with Māori people, recently established a new population of the critically endangered kākāriki karaka, or orange-fronted parakeet, on a New Zealand island. Thirty-four kākāriki karaka (Cyanoramphus malherbi), raised in captivity, were released on the predator-free Pukenui, or Anchor Island, in the Fiordland National Park. The parakeet was once common across […]

California ground squirrels shock scientists by hunting and eating voles (Mar 14 2025)
After more than a decade studying California ground squirrels, Jennifer Smith felt she had a solid understanding of their behavior. Then, in the summer of 2024, her students spotted something she never expected: one of the squirrels chased, killed and ate a vole, a small rodent common across the western coast of North America. Until […]

Deadly Botswana rains made more likely by climate change, rapid urbanization (Mar 14 2025)
Unusually heavy rainfall struck southern Botswana and eastern South Africa from Feb. 16-20, flooding cities and killing at least 31 people. In Botswana, the government said nearly 5,500 people were affected, and more than 2,000 people evacuated. A new rapid study by the World Weather Attribution (WWA), a team of international climate scientists analyzing extreme […]

Indonesian watchdog demands prosecution for environmental crime ‘cartels’ (Mar 14 2025)
- Indonesia’s largest environmental group, Walhi, has filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office, accusing 47 companies in the palm oil, mining and forestry sectors of corruption and environmental destruction, allegedly causing 437 trillion rupiah ($26.5 billion) in state losses.
- Walhi identified 18 forms of corruption, including government officials altering forest status to legalize deforestation, granting permits for illegal concessions, and accepting bribes to ignore violations.
- Notable examples include a palm oil company that allegedly cleared 1,706 hectares (4,215 acres) of forest in Aceh province before obtaining an environmental permit, and nickel mining in North Maluku that has devastated marine ecosystems.
- The AGO has confirmed receipt of Walhi’s complaint, and said that it will pursue allegations of corruption in those cases; however, it noted that any environmental violations would fall under the jurisdiction of other agencies.

Searching for peace, finding hope: A new film explores rural conflict in Kenya (Mar 14 2025)
- Searching for Amani is a documentary film about two Kenyan teenagers brought together in friendship by a murder.
- Simon Ali, whose father — a safari guide in central Kenya’s Laikipia County — was shot and killed while guiding tourists through a wilderness area there in 2019.
- In the film, producer Peter Goetz hands Ali the camera as he searches for information about the murder of his father, working through grief and adolescence to find some resolution for himself and his family.
- The film will be screened at the 2025 DC Environmental Film Festival, for which Mongabay is a media partner.

Indigenous schools ensure next generations protect Borneo’s ‘omen birds’ (Mar 14 2025)
In the rainforests of West Kalimantan, in Indonesian Borneo, the Indigenous Dayak Iban listen to what they call “omen birds,” or birds they say sing messages from spirits, Mongabay’s Sonam Lama Hyolmo reported in November 2024. These omen birds include species such as the white-rumped shama (Copsychus malabarincus), scarlet-rumped trogon (Harpactes duvaucelii) and Diard’s trogon […]

One in five butterflies lost in the US since 2000, study finds (Mar 14 2025)
A study in the United States found a dramatic 22% decline in butterfly populations between 2000 and 2020. Previous research has focused on a specific butterfly species or regions of the country. For this study, researchers wanted to understand overall butterfly population trends across the U.S. They gathered records of 12.6 million individual butterflies across […]

A closer look at the unknown Brazilian fox (Mar 13 2025)
CORUMBAÍBA, Brazil — The hoary fox (Lycalopex vetulus) is a small canid found only in Brazil. Although commonly seen running across the open grasslands of the Brazilian Cerrado, surprisingly little is known about the species. Researchers Fernanda Cavalcanti and Frederico Lemos have spent the past two decades working to change that. Their shared passion for […]

With biological and cultural diversity at literal crossroads in the tropics, a new approach is needed (commentary) (Mar 13 2025)
- Both biological and linguistic diversity are greatest in tropical regions, and both are endangered by unprecedented rates of road expansion.
- Will current paradigms for language and species protection help to protect this wealth of diversity into the next century, a new op-ed asks.
- While a “no roads” approach is unlikely to work in areas of overlapping cultural and biological richness, a framework of “people with nature” that acknowledges issues of justice and social equity, recognizes that local people have a right to environmental self-determination, understands that people and other-than-human species are intrinsically intertwined, and that solutions must be inclusive, could work, this commentary argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Lives worth living: Elephants, Iain Douglas-Hamilton and the fight for coexistence (Mar 13 2025)
- Iain Douglas-Hamilton spent a lifetime communing with African elephants, going on to champion their conservation during a brutal wave of poaching in the 1970s and 1980s.
- Along with Jane Goodall, he was a pioneer both of studying animals in the field and viewing them as more than objects of study — he recognised elephants as having individual personalities.
- A new film co-produced by the organization he founded, Save the Elephants, also explores how his work challenged the fortress model of conservation.
- The film will have its US premiere at the 2025 DC Environmental Film Festival, for which Mongabay is a media partner.

USAID funding cuts jeopardize creation of Ghana’s first Marine Protected Area (Mar 13 2025)
- The U.S. foreign aid freeze blocks the establishment of Ghana’s first Marine Protected Area (MPA).
- The MPA was being created under the Ghana Fisheries Recovery Activity (GFRA), a USAID-funded program that aimed to restore pelagic fish stocks crucial for the country’s food security.
- Ghana’s small pelagics, consisting mostly of sardines, anchovy and mackerels, make up about 60% of local fish landings and serve as a primary source of protein for almost two-thirds of the country’s population.
- The West African nation depended heavily on U.S. foreign aid to preserve its small pelagic fisheries sector, and without other funding, there could be cascading impacts on its economy.

Caribbean reef sharks rebound in Belize with shark fishers’ help (Mar 13 2025)
- Endangered Caribbean reef sharks (Carcharhinus perezi) and other shark species are making a striking recovery in Belize after plummeting due to overfishing between 2009 and 2019, according to recent observations.
- Experts say the establishment of no-shark-fishing zones around Belize’s three atolls in 2021 is what enabled the population boom.
- A remarkable cooperation and synergy among shark fishers, marine scientists and management authorities gave rise to the shark safe havens and led to their success, experts say.

Indonesia’s coal gasification reboot faces backlash over economic, environmental risks (Mar 13 2025)
- Indonesia is reviving plans to develop coal gasification plants to produce hydrogen and dimethyl ether (DME), aiming to reduce reliance on imported liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), with funding from the newly launched Danantara sovereign wealth fund.
- Experts warn that coal gasification is economically unviable, with previous plans falling through due to high costs, and that the government may need to provide large subsidies to make the initiative financially feasible.
- Experts also argue that the project undermines Indonesia’s climate commitments, as coal gasification emits more carbon dioxide than Environmental concerns include high carbon emissions from DME production, increased air pollution, deforestation, and biodiversity threats, contradicting Indonesia’s energy transition commitments.
- Critics argue that using state funds for coal gasification poses financial risks, urging the government to prioritize renewable energy investments instead for a more sustainable and cost-effective energy transition. coal combustion and threatens air quality, water sources, and biodiversity.