In the rock underlying rainforests, there lies a wealth of natural resources in the form of minerals and precious metals such as gold, silver, diamonds, gemstones, bauxite (used to make aluminium), tin, copper, lead and even coal!!

To get at them, people have to create mines, which not only destroy the rainforest but also cause other big problems like erosion of the weak forest soils and sometimes the poisoning of water supplies with heavy metals like mercury, which is used in the process of extracting gold.! The mercury poisons creatures in the rivers and the people and animals that drink the water.! Mercury can build up in the food chain so larger animals such as otters that may eat a lot of fish will have larger amounts of mercury in their bodies.!! Some 9,000 tonnes of mercury was washed into Brazil?s rivers during the Pala State gold rush of the 1980s.! Where soil is eroded by the rain, it is washed into the rivers, which gradually clogs them up, making flooding more likely.

Large areas of forest in Indonesia are protected by law against any prospecting or open cast mining, although new rules do allow underground mining in protected areas.! Once roads are built to reach the mines, it becomes easier for illegal logging and poaching to take place.