Amazon Rainforest

Amazon Rainforest

Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana
20m

Amazon Rainforest stands as Earth's largest and most biodiverse tropical forest ecosystem, spanning 5.5 million square kilometers across nine South American countries. The forest contains an estimated 390 billion trees representing 16,000 species, supporting 10% of Earth's species despite covering only 5.5% of Earth's land surface. The Amazon River system, the world's largest by water discharge, flows through the forest draining a basin of 7 million square kilometers. Over 1.5 million indigenous people representing 385 indigenous groups inhabit the Amazon, maintaining sophisticated traditional ecological knowledge and sustainable management practices. The rainforest functions as a crucial planetary carbon sink and biodiversity repository of irreplaceable significance for global environmental health and climate regulation.