the year 2000.
Wholesale clearance of tropical forests began when European plant- ers began colonizing Latin America in the 17th century, writes Jackson, a freelance journalist. Sugar and rubber plantations still cover vast ex- panses of land once occupied rainforest. Today, "shifting cultiva- tors," small-scale forest farmers numbering 150 million worldwide, are responsible for half of new losses as they slash plots out of the forest, then move on when the thin soil wears out.
Logging...