Related to #12 are the unintended consequences of forest conversion. For example, the loss of lowland rainforests to agriculture in Central America has been detrimental to the cloud forests of the upper mountain areas, which depend upon high levels of humidity for the preservation of their highly productive and biodiverse ecosystems. In Costa Rica, the removal of more than 80% of the lowland rainforest and the conversion of this land to crop-and pastureland, has had detrimental effects on the montane cloud forests nearby. The cloud layer now lies at higher elevations, because the reduced evapotranspiration from agricultural land (in comparison to forested land) lowers the amount of moisture in the air which flows from the lowlands up the mountainsides. This will lead to reduction and fragmentation, and ultimately, disappearance, of cloud forests (Lawton, et al., 2001).