Tropical forests are generically defined as "multi-storied, closed, broad-leaved forest vegetation with a continuous tree canopy of variable height and with characteristic diversity of species and life forms".

"Tropical forests" are not one ecosystem. They encompass idyllic rainforest, cloud forest, dry forest, pine savanna, and much more.

Tropical rainforests are defined primarily by two factors:

1.    Located in the tropics.
2.    Amount of rainfall received (4-8m/yr) with little or no "seasonality", no dry or cold season of slower growth.
Tropical rainforests are the Earth's oldest living ecosystems. Fossil records show in Southeast Asia they have existed in their present form for 70 to 100 million years. Tropical rainforests are one of the most diverse, productive ecosystems in the world due to a combination of factors, including the stable environment, canopy structure, vertical stratification, habitat area and historical events.

Top Ten Forest Facts

1.    Tropical rainforests cover 2% of the Earth's land surface but they are home to two-thirds of all living species. Supporting an estimated 70% of terrestial plants, 30% of bird species & 90% of invertebrates.
2.    A typical four square mile patch of rainforest contains as many as 1,500 flowering plants species, 750 trees species, 125 mammal species, 400 birds species, 100 reptiles species, 60 amphibians species, and 150 butterflies species.
3.    One and a half acres of rainforest are lost every second, an area of rainforest the size of Belize is lost once a month.
4.    The U.S. National Cancer Institute has identified 3000 plants active against cancer cells. 70% of these are found in the rainforest. Twenty-five percent of the active ingredients in cancer-fighting drugs come from organisms found only in the rainforest.
5.    Experts estimate that we are losing 137 species every day due to rainforest deforestation, that's about 50,000 species a year.
6.    Over 20% of the world's oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest.
7.    One tree in Peru was found to harbour forty-three different ant species - approximately the entire ant species in the British Isles.
8.    Estimates of global species diversity vary from 2 million to 100 million species, with a best estimate of somewhere near 10 million. Only 1.4 million have been named. More species are being discovered in the rainforests than anywhere else.
9.    Intact rainforests remove carbon dioxide, regulating local weather and global climate. The cutting and burning of rainforests contributes 25% of the world's global warming gasses.
10.    Half the total loss of rainforests has occurred this century, 25% in the last 20 years.