Home to more than half of the world's species, tropical rainforests are one of the most exciting and interesting places on Earth. To many, these areas are known as jungles due to the large amount of vegetation found there. Tropical rainforests are located in the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), which is found in the equatorial region. These forests are found in Central and South America, West and Central Africa, and Southeast Asia. Some other locations also include small islands in the Pacific Ocean. Due to their location in the ITCZ, tropical rainforests have been characterized as warm and humid. Tropical rainforests provide many services to the Earth. However, these forests are being cut down every year at an alarming rate. Deforestation of tropical forests has major negative impacts that can affect the global environment. We must therefore target it now so that its effects do not worsen in the future. Deforestation of tropical rainforests is one of the main causes of environmental change. It is the removal or destruction of forests. However, the big question is what factors lead to deforestation. The immediate causes are human activities such as infrastructure and agricultural expansion, timber extraction, etc. These causes are caused by demographic, economic, cultural, political, institutional and technological factors (Geist & Lambin, 2002). It is undeniable that population pressure is one of the main drivers of tropical deforestation. The relationship between population size and deforestation is quite obvious. As population size increases, demand for land increases, leading to a further shift to the forefront...... middle of paper ......forestation: Feature Articles. NASA Earth Observatory. Retrieved February 21, 2014 from http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Deforestation/printall.php Malhi, Y. and Grace, J. (2000). Tropical forests and atmospheric carbon dioxide. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 15(8), 332-337. Nobre, C.A., Sellers, P.J., & Shukla, J. (1991). Amazon deforestation and regional climate change. Journal of Climate, 4(10), 957-988.IPCC. (2007). Policies to reduce deforestation. (nd). Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Retrieved February 27, 2014 from http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg3/en/ch9s9-6-1.htmlSandler, T. (1997). Collective action and tropical deforestation. International Journal of Social Economics, 24(7/8/9), 741-760. Voldoire, A., & Royer, JF (2004). Tropical deforestation and climate variability. Climate dynamics, 22(8), 857-874.