The Amazon forest disappears at a rate of more than 2 million hectares per year as farmers continue their inward spread. As we head towards the Atlantic the development increases, more villages and houses along the banks. The houses are basic, just shacks, often with a fallen tree serving as a canoe dock. We still don't see any roads and the area still looks like remote jungleland. The land of this tropical rainforests contains poor nutrients, more than 95% of these nutrients are generated and then renewed by the forest, never finding their way into the soil. When farmers slash and burn the jungle, the resulting charred land can only support a crop for one or two seasons.