From action.RAN.org

Rainforests are very important to life on Earth. Over half of all the world's animals are found in the rainforest, and one quarter of all our medicines come from rainforest plants. Rainforests also help keep the planet cool and prevent climate change, which is harmful to the environment. Millions of indigenous peoples call the rainforest their home.

Yet the rainforests are disappearing very quickly. An area of rainforest the size of a football field is destroyed every second of every day! Over half of all the rainforests have already disappeared.

In addition to all the plants, animals, and insects in a rainforest, rainforests are also full of natural resources-things like trees, oil, copper, or gold. These are called natural resources because they occur naturally, and they can be used to make many different products that people use. For example, trees can be used to make wood and paper. Oil can be used to make gasoline, which is what cars use for energy.

Unfortunately, one of the main causes of rainforest destruction is the removal of these natural resources from the rainforests. Companies, or corporations, take natural resources-resources like oil, trees, copper, and gold-out of the rainforests in large quantities. The companies then turn these resources into products that they sell to make money. There's nothing wrong with making money, but some corporations are more concerned with making money than with protecting the rainforests. Because of this, they almost always harm or destroy the rainforest when they remove, or extract, natural resources. This has become a big problem for the people, plants, and animals that live in the rainforest, as well as for the entire planet.

As customers, we have a lot of power to change the way corporations do business. Corporations make their money from us. Every time we buy something, we are giving money to the corporation that made that product. The money we give them helps keep the corporation in business and encourages them to keep doing what they are doing. In some ways, spending money is like voting. When you buy something, you vote "yes" on the product and how it was made. So, for instance, if we buy furniture or picture frames that are made from rainforest trees, we are telling the company that it is okay to keep cutting down rainforest trees. We are saying, "Yes, we want furniture and picture frames made from rainforest trees, please keep supplying them."

If, on the other hand, we do not want a company to destroy the rainforest to provide us with furniture or picture frames, we can do something else that is very powerful. We can vote "no" on the product and how it was made simply by not buying it. We can also write the company a letter telling them why we are not buying their product.

Another thing we can do is boycott the company that is making those products. A boycott is when people choose not to buy anything from a corporation because they do not like what the corporation is doing. If a company is destroying the rainforest, we can boycott their products until they change their destructive actions. In order for a boycott to really work, lots of people need to join the boycott and tell the company-through letters or protests-why they are boycotting it.

A good example of a boycott is the 1987 Burger King boycott. At that time Burger King used rainforest beef in its hamburgers. Rainforest beef comes from rainforest land that is cleared to make room for cows. Many Burger King customers were very upset that rainforest land was being cleared to make room for cows, and decided to boycott Burger King until they stopped using rainforest beef in their hamburgers. Thousands of people wrote letters to Burger King explaining why they were boycotting.

The president of Burger King received thousands of letters from people boycotting Burger King, and he saw his sales drop-which means that because of the boycott, Burger King wasn't making as much money as it had before. After about a year, the president of Burger King realized that he had a choice to make: He could either keep using rainforest beef in his hamburgers and continue to lose money and customers, or he could agree to stop using rainforest beef as a way to make his customers happy. Guess what he chose to do? He chose to make his customers happy, since after all, without customers there would be no Burger King! So, a year and a half after the boycott began, Burger King announced that it would no longer use rainforest beef in its hamburgers.

We all have the power to save the rainforests. There are many things that YOU can do to make corporations stop doing things that are bad for the Earth.

• Don't buy any products that come from the rainforest that are not made responsibly. This includes products from rainforest wood, animal skins, gold jewelry, and fast-food beef.

• Buy things that don't harm the rainforests-like tree-free paper- whenever possible, and ask your parents and friends to do the same. Ask your stationery store to carry tree-free paper, which is made from plants like kenaf.

• Write letters to corporations that are destroying the rainforest. Let the corporations know that you are boycotting their products because you care about the rainforests. Include a picture of the rainforest or of your favorite rainforest animal. Below are some suggestions for companies that you can write to.

Lastly, learn more about the rainforests and why they are so important. Keep visiting Rainforest Action Network's website to get the latest information and to find out what else you can do to help save the rainforests.