Rain forests are the richest natural environments on earth. They are also among the most threatened and are irreplaceable. Evolved over millions of years, they are immensely complicated living communities of plants and creatures that both form them and depend on them for their survival. Though their total area is only the size of the United States, the rainforests support more than half of all living species: plants and animals both beautiful and bizarre, uniquely adapted to life in their environment and most found nowhere else. Many, as yet undiscovered and unnamed, could hold immense benefits for humanity, but they are being destroyed before we can realize their potential. To appreciate the vital importance of these fragile ecosystems and the global consequences of their destruction, we need to understand them.

This book is both a visual celebration of the world's rainforests and an impeccable scientific summary of how they operate. Put together by an impressive team of international experts and photographers, it captures the extraordinary beauty and complexity of the rainforests and at the same time contains the most up-to-date information about them. Each chapter begins with an overview, and then examines a strand in the intricate web of life of which the forests are composed: plants, insects, reptiles, birds, and mammals. A final chapter discusses the people who live in the forests and are witnessing the consequences of our disregard for their most fundamental principle: that you do not destroy the environment on which you depend.