title: Tropical forests: present status and future outlook.
abstract: Tropical forests still cover almost 8 million km squared of the humid  tropics but they are being destroyed at ever-more rapid rates.  In  1989, the area deforested amounted to 142,200 km squared, or nearly 90%  more than in 1979.  Thus, whereas the 1989 amounted total to 1.8% of  the remaining biome, the proportion could well continue to rise for the  foreseeable future, until there is little forest in just a few decades.  Deforestati  on patterns are far from even throughout the biome.  In much  of the Southeast and Southern Asia, East and West Africa, and Central  America, there is likely to be little forest left by the year 2000 or  shortly thereafter.  But in the Zaire basin, western Brazilian  Amazonia, and the Guyana highlands, sizeable expanses of forest could  persist a good while longer.  The main agent of deforestation in the  'shifted cultivator' or displaced peasant, who, responding to land  hunger and general lack of rural development in traditional farming  areas of countries concerned, feels there is no alternative but to  adopt a slash-and-burn lifestyle in forestlands.  This person is now  accounting for at least 60% of deforestation, a rapidly expanding  proportion.  However, he receives far less policy attention than the  commercial logger, the cattle rancher, and other agents of  deforestation.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Myers
mesh_terms: D000349:Africa; D017954:Africa South of the Sahara; D000352:Africa, Northern; D000383:Agriculture; D000569:Americas; D001208:Asia; D001210:Asia, Southeastern; D001938:Brazil; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D015023:Democratic Republic of the Congo; D003710:Demography; D003906:Developing Countries; D004467:Economics; D004777:Environment; D007214:Indonesia; D007843:Latin America; D011153:Population; D011157:Population Dynamics; D011158:Population Growth; D012106:Research; D012939:Social Planning; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013020:South America; D013223:Statistics as Topic
keywords: Africa; Africa South Of The Sahara; Agricultural Development; Americas; Asia; Brazil; Data Analysis; Deforestation; Demographic Factors; Developing Countries; Development Planning; Economic Factors; Environment; Environmental Degradation; French Speaking Africa; Indonesia; Latin America; Middle Africa; Population; Population Dynamics; Population Growth; Research Methodology; Rural Development; Socioeconomic Factors; South America; Southeastern Asia; Zaire