Tropical forests are the oldest living ecosystems on earth. While they cover only 2% of the planets surface, they contain 50% of the earth's species! The earth was once blanketed with nearly 15 billion acres of tropical forest - this has now dwindled to less than 9 billion acres, a loss which has occurred primarily in the last 50 years. At the rate the forest is being destroyed, we are losing nearly 35 million acres of rainforest yearly, 93,000 acres daily, 64 acres per minute!

http://savetherainforest.tribe.net