The Forest

The Amazonian region occupies a total area of more than 7.5 million square kilometers, being part of the territory of nine countries: Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Surinam, Guiana and French Guiana, The Amazonia has 3,54 million square kilometers of continuous forest-covered areas, the largest in the world. Paradoxically, however, it is a soil with low fertility: 78% of it is acid and difficult to use for agriculture. Biodiversity is also the largest in the world: while there are 4 to 25 tree species per hectare in North America, there are between 40 and 300 different tree species in the Amazon forest. There are more than 5,000 species of trees.

The volume of rain in the Amazon river basin is truly amazing: more than 15 trillion cubic meters per year. Of the overall rainfall, 48% evaporates, 52% flows to the rivers, and ultimately to the sea. The rainforest ecosystem changes significantly this average: in its environment, only 25% is evaporated and 25% goes to the rivers: the major part is retained in the forest itself.

The Amazon forest may be considered a kind of "ecological filter" for carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, because the plants in the forest absorb more CO2 than they release. Unfortunately, the accelerated human occupation of the Amazonia is causing a series of environmental problems, due to the amount of destruction of its original ecosystem. It has been estimated that approximately 12,5% of the original forest cover, or 500,000 km2, has been deforested or burnt. Logging companies, miners in search of gold and other valuable metals and agricultural occupation are the main culprits. Although the destruction rates have decreased lately, it still continues at a worrying pace.