The Amazon rainforest is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America.
It is the world’s largest tropical rainforest, famed for its biodiversity. It’s criss-crossed by thousands of rivers, including the mighty Amazon River.
This river basin is a source of one-fifth of all free-flowing fresh water on Earth. Its rain forests are the planet’s largest and most luxuriant and amazingly, home to one in ten known species on Earth. The Amazon’s tropical rainforest makes up over half of the planet’s remaining rainforests.
This basin encompasses nearly seven million square kilometres (1.7 billion acres), of which five and a half million square kilometres (1.4 billion acres) are covered by the rainforest. This region includes territory belonging to nine nations. The majority of the forest is contained within Brazil, with 60% of the rainforest, followed by Peru with 13%, and with minor amounts in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.
Map of The Amazon Rainforest
Did you know these fascinating facts, supplied by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
1/ 10% of all the world’s wildlife is found in the Amazon?
2/ The Amazon is home to over 30 million people, including almost 3 million indigenous people.
3/ An estimated 400 billion trees stand in The Amazon
4/ Despite its importance, every minute an area of Amazon Rainforest roughly equivalent to 5 football pitches is cut down.
In the last decades, scientific research has established a clear link between the health of the Amazon and the integrity of the global environment, but still only a fraction of its biological richness has been revealed.
Today, rapid deforestation threatens the Amazon. At current rates, 55 percent of its rain forests could be gone by 2030—a looming disaster not only for the region’s plants and animals, but for the world.
Amazon Rainforest
So the Amazon is reaching an irreversible tipping point.
Deforestation in the first half of 2022 was 3 times higher than in the first half of 2017.
In fact, deforestation has been increasing year on year for the last 5 years, with no signs of slowing down.
Fires continue to spread further every summer. We need to act now. Without the Amazon, we lose the fight against climate change.
But there is hope. The WWF is working hard to protect this precious place, as well as the wildlife that lives there.
They are also working to support the rights of the indigenous and traditional people that call the Amazon home.
This is not just about saving a forest, it’s about our one shared home and the future survival of all of us.
Many traditional handicrafts can be found in the Amazon Rainforest. The FAIR Trade Store has a range of unique jewellery pieces. Check out a few of them here…
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