Quick Facts you may not know about the Amazon

Here are some quick facts about the Amazon that you may not know and can amaze your friends with.

• 1.4 billion hectares of forest


• The world's largest river basin and the source of one-fifth of all free-flowing fresh water on Earth


• 60% of the Amazon is in Brazil, in an area larger than western Europe - the rest of the Amazon spans across Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana


• One in ten known species in the world live in the Amazon Rainforest
  Threats – Soy plantation expansion, cattle ranching, unsustainable logging, human settlement


• Amazon basin is home to 21 million people of which about 30% live in rural areas and 200,000 are indigenous


• The Amazon covers approximately 50% of Brazil and stores huge amounts of carbon dioxide. Burning of forest, however, has released so much of this greenhouse gas that Brazil is now placed 4th in the world for CO2 emissions

For more information on the de-forestation of the Amazon and surrounding rainforests, click on this link to take you to Flora and Fauna International website