I suggest you either read works by Mark Plotkin, a contemporary ethnobotantist or the book One River by Wade Davis. im gonna check these out, thanks yarapario druid
the simple fact is: we can manufacture paper from hemp instead of trees that take hundreds of years to mature. the rainforest is one of the most diverse eco-systems on earth and will provide us with vaccines for known diseases and unknown ones. seriously, people who don't know anything about a subject should refrain from making themselves looks even more ignorant by talking about it.
The rainforest is a very high energy place. Because it produces so much oxygen, just going down there will make you feel high. It is the most concentrated area of life force on the entire planet. I have recently started working with a company working on preserving land in sustainable ways by wildcrafting herbs with indigenous cultures in Peru. Wildcrafted herbs aren't farmed, but they grow naturally in the rainforests in virgin soil that has never been depleted by improper farming techniques. So the rainforest has not been clearcut and farmed, to create very high energy health tonics that are actually more nutritious than farmed herbs...which give people down there an economic backing to not have to sell their land to A)loggers B)cattle farmers C)Oil people. Thus preserving their land and the hundreds of thousands of plant species there that have still not been studied for medicinal value!!! To learn more - Please visit - http://174486.amazonherb.net/RS_0_0_Main.aspx and get in touch with me!!!