The main reason for deforestation, may it be logging, mining, or other means, is profit. Many illegally farm rainforests for profit as if they were their own gold mines. Those who use rainforests for profit do not see the long term consequences like the loss of numerous plant and animal species, or possibly a radical change in climate due to natural balance being shifted. What is not being seen is that the ends do not justify the means, and this profit certainly isn’t worth what is at risk.

Laws vary by nation but there is a widespread lack of either the existence of rainforest protection laws or law enforcement. Organizations like Adopt-A-Rainforest fight for rainforests rights and raise money for the cause and there are even labs devoted to the research and protection of the forests. Environmental agencies are also in the run for saving the rainforests but, as previously stated, illegal logging is difficult to stop.

Rainforests hold a large, diverse selection of plants like their orchids of which 25,000 species have gone extinct. 50,000 different woody plant species have been described in the Amazon, one fifth of the world’s plant population. It has been found that 34,000 species of plant within rainforests are endangered.

The largest rainforest in the world, the Amazon, loses the amount of forest equal to the size of New Jersey. Logging in the Amazon has seen a decrease and is reasonably lesser than in other areas due to more strict laws and an attempt at enforcing them. Being the largest rainforest the Amazon is also the most diverse, the loss of more forest may mean the loss of very interesting organisms.

Covering over 600 million acres, the second largest rainforest system in the world is largely void of  order or law. Locals took to unauthorized logging after feeling betrayed by their leader in Indonesia and laws in other parts of Southeast Asia are rarely enforced. About 2.5 million acres are lost a year in Southeast Asia, logging is a major part of Asian profit.

With the third largest rainforest spanning across five countries in the Congo Basin, there’s plenty opportunity to lose acres of forest. The 1.8 million sq. km rainforest of Central Africa loses about 10,000 sq. km a year to deforestation. Forests have been protected by law from logging but since logging laws were passed “legal” contracts have been made and an amount of forest equal to the size of England has been lost.