Threats:

The usual suspects are at work again here. First, let's consider human population growth. Many of the fastest-growing human populations are located in the tropics, and as they clear land for sustenance farming there is a direct impact on the rainforest. Unfortunately, once cleared, rainforest soils quickly lose their nutrients and then new areas have to be cut. Population-driven conflicts also add to the problems; a series of wars in the Congo River basin have killed millions of people, and in the unrest forest protection (such as for the preserve where many of the world's remaining gorillas live) is impossible. Industrialized agriculture is another threat which we will cover below. Logging is a threat; many of the tropical trees are prized for their lumber (and some are just ground up to make toilet paper). The pictures here are from Costa Rica, which has relatively good forest protection, but other areas of the world have little or no protection for their forests. Often, logs are exported whole, denying the countries where the forests are even the jobs associated with turning the lumber into finished products. The latter problem isn't limited to third world countries; the United States and Canada export a lot of logs this way (and in the meantime the corporations selling logs overseas protest government restrictions on logging by Other problems face the rainforest. Global and regional climate change are of particular concern. You wouldn't expect global warming to have much of an effect in the tropics, and in fact the effects are less pronounced at the equator than they are at the poles. However, in addition to warmer conditions, global climate change also means shifting rainfall patterns and that, of course, will affect rainforests. In addition to the global threat there are regional ones as well. As large areas of rainforest are cleared, they are no longer able to evaporate as much water through transpiration (the process by which water evaporates from the leaves and is replaced by water drawn up from the ground through the roots and the stem). Less water evaporated means less water to fall elsewhere, and this means a drier rainforest downwind of the cut forest. Fire is the traditional method used to clear rainforests; even in the wettest forest there may be one season a bit drier than the others and it is then that the fires are set. In recent years, perhaps fed by drier conditions as result of the rainforest already cleared, some of these fires have reached epic proportions, particularly in Indonesia and in Brazil.
Clearing by slashing and burning techniques, and more recently by machines, may completely destroy the remaining major areas of tropical forests. Most of the tropical forests are in poor countries whose priorities are to clear land for agriculture. Attempts by wealthier countries to encourage development often lead to tropical forests being exploited for timber. Once the forest is gone, the land is prone to erosion and flooding. Nutrients in the soil are rapidly leached and after a few years farming and ranching become untenable. Where the original forest cover is substantial, as in the Amazon, it has a major influence on climate. Loss of trees reduces local rainfall and may even disrupt the global climate. Sustainable exploitation of tropical forests, including selective logging and harvesting of products such as fruit and rubber, can provide a higher long-term income than more destructive practices.

Acid rain caused by industrial and vehicular emissions poses the biggest threat to temperate deciduous forests. Over time, acid rain damages tree leaves, causes trees to produce fewer and smaller seeds and

reduces resistance to disease. Other threats include unsustainable forestry, strip mining and the spread of invasive, non-native species that compete for space and food. Climate change is also a threat.