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THE AMAZON RAINFOREST: THE WORLD'S LARGEST RAINFOREST

BY RHETT A. BUTLER [LAST UPDATE JUNE 4, 2020]

The Amazon River Basin is home to the largest rainforest on Earth. The basin --
roughly the size of the forty-eight contiguous United States -- covers some 40
percent of the South American continent and includes parts of eight South
American countries: Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana,
and Suriname, as well as French Guiana, a department of France.

The Amazon rainforest in Peru. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

Reflecting environmental conditions as well as past human influence, the Amazon
is made up of a mosaic of ecosystems and vegetation types including rainforests,
seasonal forests, deciduous forests, flooded forests, and savannas.

The basin is drained by the Amazon River, the world's largest river in terms of
discharge, and the second longest river in the world after the Nile. The river
is made up of over 1,100 tributaries, 17 of which are longer than 1000 miles,
and two of which (the Negro and the Madeira) are larger, in terms of volume,
than the Congo river.

The river system is the lifeline of the forest and its history plays an
important part in the development of its rainforests.

The Amazon basin

CountryTree cover extent
2020Primary forest extent
2020Tree cover loss since
2000Tree cover loss
2010-19Primary forest loss
2010-19 Bolivia44,854,86828,815,72410.0%3,335,9881,630,465
Brazil373,904,915310,498,56510.2%22,238,01412,940,179
Colombia51,027,99443,336,7994.1%1,229,310774,500
Ecuador10,929,0349,093,5503.5%272,369106,585 French
Guiana8,114,7877,805,4570.9%43,02630,305
Guyana18,908,10317,168,3991.1%143,95792,979
Peru76,035,84167,149,8254.0%2,097,1461,372,976
Suriname13,856,30812,648,4911.3%141,422100,382
Venezuela36,247,58632,441,4391.6%375,760249,075
TOTAL633,879,436528,958,2497.9%29,876,99217,297,446

 







WHERE THE AMAZON RANKS AMONG GLOBAL RAINFORESTS

The Amazon is the world's biggest rainforest, larger than the next two largest
rainforests — in the Congo Basin and Indonesia — combined.

As of 2020, the Amazon has 526 million hectares of primary forest, which
accounts for nearly 84% of the region's 629 million hectares of total tree
cover. By comparison, the Congo Basin has around 168 million hectares of primary
forest and 288 million hectares of tree cover, while the combined tropical areas
of Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, and Australia have 120 million
hectares of primary forest and 216 million hectares of tree cover.



 


THE HISTORY OF THE AMAZON RAINFOREST

At one time Amazon River flowed westward, perhaps as part of a proto-Congo river
system from the interior of present day Africa when the continents were joined
as part of Gondwana. Fifteen million years ago, the Andes were formed by the
collision of the South American plate with the Nazca plate. The rise of the
Andes and the linkage of the Brazilian and Guyana bedrock shields, blocked the
river and caused the Amazon to become a vast inland sea. Gradually this inland
sea became a massive swampy, freshwater lake and the marine inhabitants adapted
to life in freshwater. For example, over 20 species of stingray, most closely
related to those found in the Pacific Ocean, can be found today in the
freshwaters of the Amazon.

About ten million years ago, waters worked through the sandstone to the west and
the Amazon began to flow eastward. At this time the Amazon rainforest was born.
During the Ice Age, sea levels dropped and the great Amazon lake rapidly drained
and became a river. Three million years later, the ocean level receded enough to
expose the Central American isthmus and allow mass migration of mammal species
between the Americas.

The Ice Ages caused tropical rainforest around the world to retreat. Although
debated, it is believed that much of the Amazon reverted to savanna and montane
forest (see Ice Ages and Glaciation). Savanna divided patches of rainforest into
"islands" and separated existing species for periods long enough to allow
genetic differentiation (a similar rainforest retreat took place in Africa.
Delta core samples suggest that even the mighty Congo watershed was void of
rainforest at this time). When the ice ages ended, the forest was again joined
and the species that were once one had diverged significantly enough to be
constitute designation as separate species, adding to the tremendous diversity
of the region. About 6000 years ago, sea levels rose about 130 meters, once
again causing the river to be inundated like a long, giant freshwater lake.

Note: Human populations have shaped the biodiversity of the Amazon. See Amazon
people for more.

The world's largest rainforests [more]
1. Amazon Basin, South America
2. Congo Basin, Africa
3. Indonesian Archipelago, Southeast Asia

How large is the Amazon rainforest?

The extent of the Amazon depends on the definition. The the Amazon River drains
about 6.915 million sq km (2.722 sq mi), or roughly 40 percent of South America,
but generally areas outside the basin are included when people speak about "the
Amazon." The biogeographic Amazon ranges from 7.76-8.24 million sq km (3-3.2
million sq mi), of which just over 80 percent is forested. For comparison, the
land area of the United States (including Alaska and Hawaii) is 9,629,091 square
kilometers (3,717,811 sq km).

Nearly two-thirds of the Amazon lies in Brazil.

Amazon rainforest cover by country in 2020 according to analysis of satellite
data by Hansen et al 2020.

 


THE AMAZON RIVER TODAY

 

The Javari, a tributary of the Amazon river that forms the border between Peru
and Brazil. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

Today the Amazon River is the most voluminous river on Earth, carrying more than
five times the volume of the Congo or twelve times that of the Mississippi,
draining an area nearly the size of the forty-eight contiguous United States.
During the high water season, the river's mouth may be 300 miles wide and every
day up to 18 billion cubic meters (635 billion cubic feet) of water flow into
the Atlantic. That discharge, equivalent to 209,000 cubic meters of water per
second (7.3 million cubic feet/sec), could fill over 7.2 million Olympic
swimming pools per day or supply New York City's freshwater needs for nine
years.

The force of the current -- from sheer water volume alone -- causes Amazon River
water to continue flowing 125 miles out to sea before mixing with Atlantic salt
water. Early sailors could drink freshwater out of the ocean before sighting the
South American continent.

The river current carries tons of suspended sediment all the way from the Andes
and gives the river a characteristic muddy whitewater appearance. It is
calculated that 106 million cubic feet of suspended sediment are swept into the
ocean each day. The result from the silt deposited at the mouth of the Amazon is
Majaro island, a river island about the size of Switzerland.

The Amazon's influence on the movement of moisture extends beyond the water that
flows down the Amazon river. The trees of the Amazon rainforest pump vast
quantities of water vapor into the atmosphere every day via transpiration. While
much of this water falls locally as rain, some of this moisture is carried by
airflows across other parts of the continent, including the agricultural
heartland of South America to the south. This movement has been likened to
"flying rivers". By one estimate, 70% of Brazil's gross national product comes
from areas that receive rainfall generated by the Amazon rainforest.


THE AMAZON RAINFOREST

Flooded forest in the Peruvian Amazon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

While the Amazon Basin is home to the world's largest tropical rainforest, the
region consists of myriad other ecosystems ranging from natural savanna to
swamps. Even the rainforest itself is highly variable, tree diversity and
structure varying depending on soil type, history, drainage, elevation, and
other factors. This is discussed at greater length in the Amazon rainforest
ecology section.


AMAZON BIODIVERSITY

The Amazon is home to more species of plants and animals than any other
terrestrial ecosystem on the planet -- perhaps 30 percent of the world's species
are found there. The following numbers represent a sampling of its astounding
levels of biodiversity:

 * 40,000 plant species
 * 16,000 tree species
 * 3,000 fish species
 * 1,300 birds
 * 430+ mammals
 * 1,000+ amphibians
 * 400+ reptiles


THE CHANGING AMAZON RAINFOREST

The Amazon has a long history of human settlement, but in recent decades the
pace of change has accelerated due to an increase in human population, the
introduction of mechanized agriculture, and integration of the Amazon region
into the global economy. Vast quantities of commodities produced in the Amazon —
cattle beef and leather, timber, soy, oil and gas, and minerals, to name a few —
are exported today to China, Europe, the U.S., Russia, and other countries. This
shift has had substantial impacts on the Amazon.

This transition from a remote backwater to a cog in the global economy has
resulted in large-scale deforestation and forest degradation in the Amazon —
more than 1.4 million hectares of forest have been cleared since the 1970s. An
even larger area has been affected by selective logging and forest fires.

Conversion for cattle grazing is the biggest single direct driver of
deforestation. In Brazil, more than 60 percent of cleared land ends up as
pasture, most of which has low productivity, supporting less than one head per
hectare. Across much of the Amazon, the primary objective for cattle ranching is
to establish land claims, rather than produce beef or leather. But
market-oriented cattle production has nonetheless expanded rapidly during the
past decade.

Industrial agricultural production, especially soy farms, has also been an
important driver of deforestation since the early 1990s. However since 2006 the
Brazil soy industry has had a moratorium on new forest clearing for soy. The
moratorium was a direct result of a Greenpeace campaign.

Mining, subsistence agriculture, dams, urban expansion, agricultural fires, and
timber plantations also result in significant forest loss in the Amazon. Logging
is the primary driver of forest disturbance and studies have shown that
logged-over forests — even when selectively harvested — have a much higher
likelihood of eventual deforestation. Logging roads grant access to farmers and
ranchers to previous inaccessible forest areas.

Deforestation isn't the only reason the Amazon is changing. Global climate
change is having major impacts on the Amazon rainforest. Higher temperatures in
the tropical Atlantic reduce rainfall across large extents of the Amazon,
causing drought and increasing the susceptibility of the rainforest to fire.
Computer models suggest that if current rates of warming continue, much of the
Amazon could transition from rainforest to savanna, especially in the southern
parts of the region. Such a shift could have dramatic economic and ecological
impacts, including affecting rainfall that currently feeds regions that generate
70 percent of South America's GDP and triggering enormous carbon emissions from
forest die-off. These emissions could further worsen climate change.

Primary forest loss in Amazon countries according to analysis of satellite data
by Hansen et al 2020. Tree cover loss in Amazon countries according to analysis
of satellite data by Hansen et al 2020.


PROTECTING THE AMAZON RAINFOREST

While destruction of the Amazon rainforest is ongoing, the overall rate of
deforestation rate in the region dropped between the mid-2000s and mid-2010s,
mostly due to to the sharp decline in forest clearing in Brazil. However
deforestation has been steadily rising in the region in more recent years.

Brazil's decline in its deforestation rate between 2004 and 2012 was attributed
to several factors, some of which it controls, some of which it doesn't. Between
2000 and 2010 Brazil established the world's largest network of protected areas,
the majority of which are located in the Amazon region. In 2004, the government
implemented a deforestation reduction program which included improved law
enforcement, satellite monitoring, and the provision of financial incentives for
respecting environmental laws. Independent public prosecutors offices played a
particularly important role in pursing illegal activities in the Brazilian
Amazon. The private sector also got involved, especially after 2006 when major
crushers established a moratorium on new deforestation for soy. That soy
moratorium was followed by the "Cattle Agreement", which major slaughterhouses
and beef processors committed to source cattle only from areas where
environmental laws were being respected.

However these conservation initiatives started to break down in the Brazilian
Amazon in the mid-2010s. Major cattle producers circumvented the rules through
livestock laundering, while financial incentives for conserving forests failed
to materialize at the expected scale needed to change landowners' behavior. The
Temer and Bolsonaro Administrations dismantled environmental regulations,
reduced environmental law enforcement, stripped conservation areas and
indigenous territories of protections, and encouraged a wide range of industries
(mining, logging, agribusiness) to expand extraction and conversion in the
Amazon. In 2019, deforestation in the Brazilian started accelerating rapidly.

Protected areas and indigenous territories in the Amazon and adjacent areas.
Data accessed via Global Forest Watch.

 


THE LATEST AMAZON RAINFOREST NEWS

To fight invaders, Munduruku women wield drone cameras and cellphones (Mar 15
2022)
- Three young women from the Munduruku Indigenous group in the Brazilian Amazon
run an audiovisual collective that uses social media to raise awareness about
illegal invasions of their territory.
- “Many people no longer believe what we say, they only believe what they see,”
says Aldira Akai, who, at 30, is the oldest member of the collective.
- The Munduruku living in the Sawré Muybu Indigenous Territory say the
anti-Indigenous rhetoric of the Jair Bolsonaro administration has emboldened
illegal loggers and miners, and put native defenders under greater risk.
- The impact of illegal logging and mining in Sawré Muybu has seen deforestation
surge to 146 hectares (361 acres) in 2020, up from 105 hectares (259 acres) the
previous year.


Amazon deforestation starts 2022 on the fastest pace in 14 years (Mar 15 2022)
- Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is off to its fastest pace to start a
year since at least 2008.
- According to data from Brazil’s national space research institute, forest
clearing in the Amazon through the first two months of 2022 has amounted to 430
square kilometers (166 square miles), more than twice the average over the past
ten years.
- The torrid start to the year suggests the Brazilian government is failing to
rein in deforestation after a high profile pledge to do so at last year’s U.N.
climate talks in Glasgow.
- The news came just days after a study published in Nature Climate Change
provided more evidence that the ecological function of Earth’s largest
rainforest is diminishing.


In Brazil, Indigenous Ka’apor take their territory’s defense into their own
hands (Mar 14 2022)
- In the Alto Turiaçu Indigenous Territory in Brazil’s Maranhão state, the
Ka’apor people have taken the defense of their land into their own hands
following years of neglect and corruption by the state.
- They have created a self-defense force to retake logging sites and access
roads from illegal loggers, and established a network of settlements at each
site to make their gains permanent.
- The strategy has paid off: in the first three years of the effort, from
2013-2016, the Ka’apor burned 105 logging trucks and closed 14 access roads, and
managed to reduce the deforestation rate in their reserve significantly.
- But the illegal loggers, part of criminal organizations linked to local
politicians, have reacted with violence against the Ka’apor, resulting in
attacks on villages and the murder of five Indigenous people.


Moore Foundation pledges extra $300m to boost conservation of Amazon (Mar 10
2022)
- The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has allocated an additional $300 million
toward the Andes-Amazon Initiative to continue biodiversity and forest
conservation efforts in the region until 2031.
- To date, the initiative has been successful in conserving 400 million hectares
(988 million acres) of land, about half the size of Brazil, since its
establishment in 2003.
- New targets include ensuring 100 million hectares (247 million acres) of
freshwater and forest ecosystems, as well as Indigenous and local communities’
lands, are effectively managed.
- To safeguard the resilience and health of the Andes-Amazon region’s
ecosystems, at least 70% of its historic forest cover must remain intact, a
threshold the initiative will exceed if it hits its new targets, says Avecita
Chicchón, program director of the Andes-Amazon Initiative.


In destroying the Amazon, big agribusiness is torching its own viability (Mar 7
2022)
- A new study has found that the transition zone between the Amazon and Cerrado
in the northeast of Brazil has heated up significantly and become drier in the
past two decades.
- The research points to deforestation in the Amazon and global climate changes
as factors prolonging the dry season and warming up the region, leaving it
susceptible to severe droughts and forest fires.
- Ironically, the changes being driven by the intensified agricultural activity
are rendering the region less suitable for crop cultivation.
- The authors of the new study say there needs to be a balance of sustainable
agricultural solutions and an environmentally focused political agenda to
protect the region’s ecosystems, its economy, and its people.


Chasing Deforestation: Reporter Ana Ionova finds a water buffalo ‘frenzy’ in
Autazes (Mar 2 2022)
- Every month, Mongabay brings you a new episode of Chasing Deforestation, our
digital series that explores the world’s most threatened forests through
satellite data and reporters on the ground.
- In this episode, reporter Ana Ionova takes us to Autazes, a municipality in
the Brazilian Amazon that is experiencing a spike in deforestation.
- Stretches of land are being razed for pasture for herds of domestic water
buffaloes.
- The deforestation is now encroaching into protected reserves that are home to
the Mura Indigenous group, with devastating environmental and social
consequences.


In Brazil, evicted Indigenous residents fight to reclaim their community (Mar 1
2022)
- Some 2,260 families, many of them Indigenous, were displaced in March 2020
when authorities dismantled the Monte Horebe informal settlement on the
outskirts of Manaus, in the Brazilian state of Amazonas.
- Two years later, many of the displaced residents continue to struggle with
precarious housing, deepening poverty and the ongoing COVID-19 crisis,
Indigenous leaders say.
- The Indigenous community is now fighting to reclaim the Monte Horebe
settlement, asking a court to order authorities to compensate residents and
allow them to return to the area.
- Informal settlements provide a lifeline for vulnerable Indigenous people
forced to cities in search of employment, education or health care, but a
crackdown by the authorities on these settlements threatens Indigenous people’s
right to housing, community leaders say.


Chocolate frog? New burrowing frog species unearthed in Amazon’s rare peatlands
(Feb 28 2022)
- Researchers dug up a new-to-science species of burrowing frog in the Peruvian
Amazon that resembles chocolate. The frog has been nicknamed the tapir frog for
its distinctive-looking snout.
- Herpetologists used the frog’s call to locate and dig up three individual
frogs. DNA analyses confirmed that, although the species was known to locals, it
had not yet been described by science.
- The team found the small frogs in one of the rarest habitats in the Amazon
rainforest, the Amazon peatlands. A past study found that peatlands in the
Peruvian Amazon store 10 times the amount of carbon as nearby undisturbed
rainforest.
- The discovery was made during a rapid inventory of the Lower Putumayo Basin. A
conservation area is proposed for the region and researchers say the tapir frog
is yet another reason to conserve this peatland and the surrounding area.


In a biodiversity haven, mining drives highest ever recorded levels of mercury
(Feb 28 2022)
- A recent study has found that forests in the southwestern Peruvian Amazon
collect mercury from the atmosphere that’s used in artisanal small-scale gold
mining in the Madre de Dios region.
- The study’s authors found “the highest ever recorded” levels of mercury from
the “throughfall” that ends up on the forest floor when the leaves fall or rain
washes the mercury from their surfaces.
- Mercury is highly toxic, causing neurological and reproductive problems in
humans and other animals.
- Organizations are looking at different ways to reduce or even eliminate the
use of mercury, which miners use to bind the flecks of gold found in the
region’s riverine silt.


Brazil’s Amazon gold mining to be “stimulated” by Bolsonaro’s decree
(commentary) (Feb 22 2022)
- Brazil’s notoriously anti-environmental president has issued a decree
instituting a program to stimulate “artisanal” gold mining. This mining is not
really done by the small-scale individual prospectors that the name implies, but
rather as part of operations backed by wealthy entrepreneurs, including
politicians and organized crime.
- This gold mining, known as “garimpagem,” is often done by illegally invading
Indigenous lands and is one of the greatest sources of impact on Amazonian
Indigenous peoples. A bill submitted to the National Congress by President
Bolsonaro would open Indigenous lands to this activity, and hundreds of requests
for mining licenses in these areas have been submitted to the National Mining
Agency by garimpeiro cooperatives in anticipation of these areas becoming
available to legal mining.
- Despite the new decree describing itself as having a “view to sustainable
development,” the severe environmental and social impacts of garimpagem, as well
as the inherent unsustainability of mining, make a mockery of this claim.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not
necessarily Mongabay.








PICTURES OF THE AMAZON RAINFOREST


Blackwater lake and whitewater river in the Amazon

Victoria water lilies

Flowering tree in the Amazon rainforest canopy

Waura shaman

Oxbow lake in the Amazon

Cock-of-the-rock

Blue poison dart frog

Leaf katydid

Jaguar in the Colombian Amazon

Hoatzin

Creek in the Colombian Amazon

Passion flower in the Colombian Amazon

Woolly monkey

Javari River

Daybreak over the Amazon

Amazonian wax-tailed fulgorid

Amazon rainforest canopy in Brazil

Discus

Rivers in the Amazon rainforest

Squirrel monkey in the Amazon

Leaf-cutter ant in the Amazon

Giant monkey frog

Amazon rainforest canopy in Peru

Orange planthopper in Peru

Oxbow lake in the Amazon

Indigenous man with bird eggs

Indigenous Tikuna man in the Amazon rainforest

Javari river in the Amazon

Harpy eagle

Mantid in Suriname

Amazon leaf toad

Amazon bat

Angelfish


FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE AMAZON, ANSWERED

Where is the Amazon rainforest?

The Amazon rainforest is located in South America.

How big is the Amazon rainforest?
The Amazon basin is roughly the size of the forty-eight contiguous United
States. The forest itself covered roughly 634 million hectares in 2020, of which
about 529 million hectares was classified as primary forest.

Where does the Amazon forest rank in terms of size among rainforests?
The Amazon is Earth's largest rainforest. The Congo is the second largest
rainforest.

What countries make up the Amazon rainforest?
The Amazon includes parts of eight South American countries: Brazil, Bolivia,
Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, and Suriname, as well as French
Guiana, a department of France.

Who owns the Amazon rainforest?
The Amazon lies within several countries (see above). Within those countries,
land may be privately owned, held by indigenous peoples in legally recognized
territories, owned by collectives, or controlled by the government as national
parks or public lands.

How does the Amazon Rainforest get its name?
The Amazon rainforest is named after the Amazon River, which is known as the Rio
Amazonas in Spanish and Portuguese. "Amazonas" is derived from an ancient Greek
myth about a tribe of mighty women warriors. It was bestowed on the river by
Francisco de Orellana after a 16th-century attack on his expedition by
long-haired native peoples. The attack was either led by women or men with long
hair, prompting the name.

Who lives in the Amazon rainforest?
The Amazon has a long history of human settlement. Today, millions of people
live in cities and towns across the Amazon. This urban population vastly
outnumbers the people living in villages and remote communities. However there
are still traditional indigenous peoples living deep in the rainforest in
voluntary isolation. Learn more about
people in the Amazon rainforest
.

Is the Amazon rainforest really Earth’s lungs?
The Amazon rainforests is often called the "lungs of the planet" for its role in
absorbing carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, and releasing moisture into the
atmosphere through the process of transpiration. Rainforests produce oxygen
during the day via photosynthesis and absorb oxygen at night via respiration.
Therefore they aren't a major net source of oxygen in the atmosphere.

What causes fires in the Amazon?
Fires in the Amazon typically result from either natural ignition sources like
lightning or intentional setting by humans. Human activities are worsening
conditions that allow fires to move from dry areas — like farms, pastures, and
logged forests — into rainforests.

What animals live in the Amazon?
The Amazon is home to more species of plants and animals than any other
terrestrial ecosystem on the planet -- perhaps 30 percent of the world's species
are found there. These range from jaguars to tapirs to bats; parrots to
hummingbirds; poison dart frogs to anacondas; leaf-cutter ants to blue morpho
butterflies, and stingrays to piranha, to name but a small selection of
well-known animals.

Why don't we just buy the Amazon?
The countries that control the Amazon are sovereign nations. While it may be
possible to buy some land to set aside for conservation, attempting to buy the
entire Amazon is impossible. In general, the most effective conservation
strategies in the region involve recognizing the land rights of indigenous
peoples and ensuring that local people benefit from conservation and sustainable
development initiatives.

What can we do to stop the Amazon burning?
Fires in the Amazon are often a product of government policies governing land
use, enforcement of environmental laws, and corporate guidelines for commodity
sourcing. Encouraging landowners to carefully manage fires can greatly reduce
the likelihood of agricultural fires burning into rainforests.

Why are forest fires getting worse?
Deforestation and forest degradation increase the vulnerability of rainforests
to fire by drying out the forest interior. At the same time, climate change is
increasing the incidence of drought in the Amazon basin. When farmers, ranchers,
and land speculators start fires, they can easily spread into the rainforest.

What is the environmental impact of Amazon forest fires?
Rainforest fires threaten biodiversity through habitat destruction. Fires also
release substantial amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, drive local and
regional air pollution, and can even affect rainfall patterns.

Why is the Amazon rainforest important?
The Amazon rainforest helps stabilize the world’s climate by sequestering
carbon; provides a home for plant and animal species; helps maintain the water
cycle, including generating rainfall at local, regional, and trans-continental
scales; is a source for food, fiber, fuel, and medicine; supports
forest-dependent people, including indigenous tribes living in voluntary
isolation from the rest of humanity; and provides recreational, spiritual, and
cultural value.

How much of the Amazon rainforest has been destroyed?
Just under 20% of the Amazon rainforest has been cleared since 1950. Learn more
about
trends in deforestation in the Amazon
and
the current deforestation rate in the region
.

Is the Amazon rainforest dangerous?
There are a number of animals that are potentially dangerous to humans, ranging
from venomous snakes to electric eels to the jaguar, among vertebrates. However
it's the small things that generally pose the greatest risks: disease-carrying
mosquitos, viruses and bacteria, and biting ants. And don't forget humans:
violence against environmental defenders and indigenous peoples is a major issue
in the Amazon.

Why is the Amazon rainforest in danger?
Accelerating deforestation, forest degradation, and drought in the Amazon is of
great concern to scientists who warn that the entire biome may be near a tipping
point where large areas of wet rainforest could transition to dry tropical
woodlands and savanna. Such a transition could have dramatic implications for
regional rainfall, with the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone potentially shifting
northward, leading to drier conditions across South America's breadbasket and
major urban areas. The impact on regional economies could be substantial, while
the impact on ecosystem function and biodiversity of the Amazon could be
devastating, according to researchers.



 


AMAZON RAINFOREST SECTION CONTENTS:

The Amazon

Amazon deforestation

Amazon rainforest facts

Amazon wildlife

Amazon people

Amazon importance

Amazon ecology

Amazon slideshow

Amazon conservation

Amazon rainforest news

Visiting the Amazon

Amazon climate change

Current deforestation rate

Deforestation calculations

Amazon rainforest photos

Rainforests home

For kids

The Congo


 








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