A typical patch of rainforest contains over 1,500 flowering plants, 750 tree species, 400 bird species and 150 butterfly species. Rainforests provide important resources like medicines, timber, and food, with 70% of plants used to treat cancer found exclusively in rainforests. More than 1 billion people depend on forests for survival. Deforestation is one of the leading causes of climate change, with a football field of rainforest destroyed every second due to unsustainable agriculture and ranching practices like cattle ranching. By 2030, only 10% of tropical rainforests are projected to remain if deforestation continues at its current rate, resulting in the loss of hundreds of thousands of species.

1. Tropical Rainforest Making a change to save future generations!

3. A typical four square mile patch of rainforest contains as many as 1,500 flowering plants, 750 species of trees, 400 species of birds and 150 species of butterflies.

5. As the rainforest species disappear, so do many possible cures for life-threatening diseases. Currently, 121 prescription drugs sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources.

7. Rainforests provide many important products for people: timber, coffee, cocoa and many medicinal products, including those used in the treatment of cancer.

9. 70% of the plants identified by the U.S. National Cancer Institute as useful in the treatment of cancer are found only in rainforests.

11. More than 2,000 tropical forest plants have been identified by scientists as having anti-cancer properties.

13. More than 1 billion people living in extreme poverty depend on forests for their water, fuel or livelihoods. The economic value of intact forests is much greater than the short-term benefits of logging or clearing land for agriculture.

15. Deforestation One of the leading causes of climate change!

16. Every second, a slice of rainforest the size of a football field is mowed down. That's 86,400 football fields of rainforest per day, or over 31 million football fields of rainforest each year.

18. Rainforests are threatened by unsustainable agricultural, ranching, mining and logging practices

19. Cattle Ranching is the leading cause of deforestation!

22. By 2030 there will only be10% of tropical rainforests remaining with another ten percent in a degraded condition. 80% will have been lost and with them the irreversible loss of hundreds of thousands of species.

24. Experts estimates that we are losing 137 plant, animal and insect species every single day due to rainforest deforestation. (That equates to 50,000 species a year)

26. When trees and plants are destroyed, their stored carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, where it contributes to climate change. In fact, deforestation and land use change contributes approximately 20 to 25 percent of the carbon emissions that cause climate change.

28. YOU can Make a Difference Personal Ways to Prevent Rainforest Deforestation

29. 1. Eat Less Beef United States imports roughly 200 million pounds of beef from Central America every year. Aside from the fuel used in transport, grazing land is needed for all of these animals. For each hamburger that originated from animals raised on rainforest land, approximately 55 square feet of forest have been destroyed. In the United States, more than 260 million acres of forest have been clear-cut for animal agriculture.

31. 2. Avoid products that contain palm oil and soybean oil. Oil palm planting has also led to enormous human suffering and the destruction of forest lands that communities rely on. In Indonesia, oil palm plantations are associated with the displacement of forest peoples from their land. In Brazil, in 1940 there were only 704 hectares of soy fields, by 2003 there were 18 million hectares. The most direct impact of this process has been the deforestation of approximately 2 million hectares of tropical forest in the case of Indonesia by 1999, and the loss of vast areas of forests in the Centre-West region of Brazil to make way for oil palm or soy plantations.

33. 3. Don't buy products made with tropical hardwoods. Even with tropical deforestation at an all-time high, tropical hardwood prices continue to climb as world demand for tropical hardwoods continues to grow. A single teak log for example can now bring as much as $20,000. Annual world consumption of tropical hardwoods is now more than 250 million cubic meters, or over 100 billion board feet, per year. Southeast Asia until recently has been the largest source of supply for tropical hardwoods, but that area will largely be depleted within the next five years. All of the primary forests in India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh are gone. Ivory Coast's forests are essentially non-existent. Nigeria's forests have been decimated as well.