Questions:
What is a rain forest?
What is a rain forest's importance to the environment as a whole?
Just how much danger currently exists to rain forest habitats?
Why wouldn't people want to protect rainforests?
What about rainforests in Brazil?
What has Brazil done to protect the forests?

Questions with Answers

What is a rain forest?

A rainforest consists of broad-leaved trees that form a canopy, and it is this dense upper layer of leaves that makes a rainforest what it is. The canopy protects the vegetation and ecology at ground level from the sun, and scientists have found that the canopy itself has an ecosystem almost separate from the one on the ground far below.

What is a rain forest's importance to the environment as a whole?

Only 7% of the planet Earth is covered by rainforests. But rainforests are really significant because they are home to more than half of the world's land and animal species! Study of the rainforest has caused scientists to invent the concept of biodiversity to show the large number of creatures in this habitat and the impact these species could have on Earth now and in the future.

The Tropical Rain Forest Information Center says, "Many of these plants and animals of the rain forest… require a special habitat to live. This makes them very vulnerable to deforestation. If their habitat is cut down, they may become extinct. Every day species are disappearing from the tropical rain forests as they are cut…. estimates range from one to 137 species disappearing worldwide per day (Stork 1996, Rainforest Action Network 1998)."

What about rainforests in Brazil?

Brazil is home to the largest rainforest in the world. Over half of Brazil consists of forested terrain (but not all of this is rainforest).

Why wouldn't people want to protect rainforests?

Because agriculture is so important to Brazil's economy, it has been difficult to protect the rainforests because farmers and others see the undeveloped land as profitable. While the presence of the rainforest benefits the world as a whole, it seems unfair to Brazilians that they are unable to use their land to earn money and improve their living conditions.
http://www.britannica.com/bcom/magazine/article/0,5744,384288,00.html?query=brazil

Just how much danger currently exists to rain forest habitats?
"The most recent figures by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimate tropical deforestation (of the rain forest and other tropical forests) at 53,000 square miles per year (15.4 x 106 ha/yr) during the 1980s (FAO 1993). Of this, they estimate that 21,000 square miles (6.2 x 106 ha/yr) were deforested annually in South America, most of this in the Amazon Basin. Based on these estimates, each year an area of tropical forest large enough to cover North Carolina is deforested. Each year!
"The rate of deforestation varies from region to region. Basic Science and Remote Sensing Initiative’s (BSRSI) research showed that in the Brazilian Amazon, the rate if deforestation was around 6200 square miles per year (1.8 x 106 ha/yr) from 1978-1986, but fell to 4800 sq. miles per year (1.4 x 106 ha/yr) from 1986-1993 (Skole and Tucker 1993). By 1988, 6% of the Brazilian Amazon had been cut down (90,000 square miles, about the area of New England). However, due to the isolation of fragments and the increase in the boundaries of the forest and clearings, a total of 16.5% of the forest (230,000 square miles, nearly the size of Texas) was affected by deforestation. NASA-funded scientists are currently analyzing rates of deforestation for the current decade, as well as studying how deforestation changes from year to year."
(from The Tropical Rain Forest Information Center)
http://bsrsi.msu.edu/rfrc/status.html

Size of Texas
http://www.governor.state.tx.us/Texas/facts_figures.html

What has Brazil done to protect the forests?

In September 1999, Brazil passed Environmental Crimes Law.
This law can require fines of up to US$260 per cubic meter of destroyed forest.
http://www.brasilemb.org/environment/envlaw.htm

Sources

Brazilian Embassy in Washington
http://www.brasilemb.org/environment/envlaw.htm
The text of Brazil's Environmental Crimes Law.

Amazonia.net
http://www.amazonia.net/Articles/393.htm
This article discusses the government's current treatment of peoples indigenous to the Brazilian rainforests.

Britannica.com
BACKGROUND NOTES ON COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD; JULY 08, 2000: BRAZIL
http://www.britannica.com/bcom/magazine/article/0,5744,384288,00.html?query=brazil
Facts about Brazil.

The Tropical Rain Forest Information Center
http://www.bsrsi.msu.edu/trfic/index.html
The Center provides a variety of facts and articles about the world's various rainforests.

Texas Governor
http://www.governor.state.tx.us/Texas/facts_figures.html
Facts about Texas provided by the governor's office.