A study tour was taken by Rudolph Heinrich, chief of the Harvesting and Transport Branch of the Timber Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Vern Wellburn of FERIC to establish contact and discuss potential forestry projects in the Amazon Region. The trip was taken in the spring of 1990. The major cause of the deterioration of Brazil's tropical rain forest is the clearing of forest by the poor farmers who are moving into the Amazon Region in search of agricultural land. Because less than 10% of the region will support sustainable agriculture, and because the farmers lack technical training, they damage nonagricultural land in their search.