Only a quarter of world's rainforest is in good condition for wildlife

Scientists say the biodiversity of the world's rainforests is under threat due to human activity like deforestation.

Rainforests around the world are a vital habitat for a huge number of species, many of which are rare or only found in certain places.

But according to new research, only around a quarter of the world's rainforests are in a good enough condition to prevent some species from going extinct.

Scientists are calling for urgent action to preserve the rainforest that is still untouched.

A rainforest is made up of lots of different layers and home to a huge variety of species

As part of this research, scientists looked at 16,000 animal species and the quality of the rainforests they have access to.

Up to 90% of the geographical ranges of these species were still covered in forest.

But when researchers took a closer look, they found only 25% of the tropical rainforests were still high quality.

A good quality rainforest isn't just about how many trees are left standing, it's also about the biodiversity in the ecosystem which is the variety of living things.

The higher quality rainforests have a multi-layered structure.

The lower canopy has shrubs and small trees, the middle canopy has medium-sized trees and the upper canopy is the taller trees.

The Diana monkey lives in West Africa's rainforests and although it still has forests covering 80% of its range, only 0.7% of it is of high quality according to the research

University of Northern British Columbia's Dr Rajeev Pillay led the research, He said:

"Simply having forest cover isn't enough if the structural complexity and low human disturbance necessary for biodiversity are gone.

"To protect the remaining high-integrity tropical rainforests, global coordination to minimise human disturbance is key, especially in unprotected forests that remain vital for biodiversity."