ff species faster than they can be found and described. It is believed that scientists have discovered 1.6 million species, but this is just a fraction of the estimated four to thirty million species that are yet undiscovered by man. As Edward Wilson tells us, "No one knows the diversity in the world, not even to the nearest order of magnitude. We do not know for sure how many species there are, where they can be found or how fast they are disappearing. It is like having astronomy without knowing where the stars are" (Tangley). Some scientists believe that the species extinction crisis is a threat to civilization second only to the threat of nuclear war. Although many species are being wiped out to the point of extinction, another problem arises when the endangered species is not "cute and cuddley." As Paul Ehrlich puts it, "many of the less cuddley, less spectacular organisms that Homo Sapiens are wiping out are far more important to the human future than are most of the publicized endangered species" (Allen, 1988).
Tropical rain forests cover approximately seven percent of the planet and support about fifty percent of the earth's known species. But despite their extraordinary richness, tropical rain forests are among the most fragile of all habits, and they now
occupy only forty percent of the land that once supported them (Fearnside, 1987). According to the United Nations Environment Program and the Food and Agricultur
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