Rainforest | featured news

The Brazilian Government is the largest single buyer of condoms in the world, importing around a billion of them every year. In 2008, the Government announced the start of a new programme to produce condoms using environmentally sustainable rubber, which will curb its dependence on imported contraceptives, provide jobs for local people and help preserve the world's largest rainforest.

Deforestation is blamed for 20 percent of harmful carbon dioxide emissions and the extinction of thousands of unique species of plants, animals and insects. The issue means nothing less than survival in Panama, where ranchers and tribesmen are at odds over a dwindling rainforest.