Amazon Rainforest

Rainforests cover a mere 7% of the Earth's land surface, but the biodiversity and abundance of life forms - whether microorganisms, plants or animals, is greater than that of any other type of ecosystem on Earth.

DEFORESTATION IS THREATENING OUR SURVIVAL

Due to land development and logging the Amazon Rainforest is becoming smaller every day.  The loss of rain forest land is a concern for all nations of the world, because the continued burning and logging of the forest is contributing to climate change and global warming. And although the Rainforest has already supplied Humankind with an abundance of useful items for food and agriculture, medicine and industry, thousands of plant and animal species, secrets yet to be discovered, will become extinct during our lifetime.

Go To:  PROJECT AMAZON  

• Did you know?  The Amazon is the world's largest tropical rainforest.  It covers more than a billion acres.  It encompasses the Eastern Andean region of Ecuador and Peru and areas in Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela. 
• Did you know?  The Amazon Rainforest is known as the "Lungs of our Planet" because it produces more than 20% of the worlds oxygen and it continuously recycles carbon dioxide into oxygen, providing an essential service that is crucial to the continuance of life as we know it on planet Earth.
• Did you know?  One-fifth of the world's fresh water is in the Amazon Basin.
• Did you know? Scientists estimate that only 40 per cent of all insect species living in the Rainforest have so far been identified.  
• Did you know? 30,000 species of plants have been identified in the Rainforest, but an estimated 20,000 others remain unidentified.
• Did you know?  It is estimated that every hectare that is, 2.47 acres of the Amazon Rainforest contains over 200 species of trees. There are more plant species in one hectare of the Amazon than the whole of the European continent.
• Did you know? In the last century, a dozen species of frogs and fish, two species of birds and seven species of monkeys have been discovered in the Rainforest.
• Did you know? Fruits like coconuts, figs, avocados, oranges, grapefruit, lemons,  guavas, pineapples, mangos, bananas, and tomatoes; vegetables including potatoes, rice, corn, yams and winter squash; spices like black pepper, cayenne, vanilla, chocolate, cloves, ginger, tumeric, cinnamon, coffee, sugar cane, and nuts including Brazil nuts and cashews all originated from the Amazon Rainforest.
• Did you know? An estimated 80% of the world's diet comes from rainforests.

THE AMAZON RAINFOREST IS A VALUABLE PHARMACY

• Did you know? 70% of the 3000 plants identified by the U.S. National Cancer Institute to be active against cancer cells are found in the Rainforest.
• Did you know? One of the world's most powerful anticancer drugs, Vincristine, extracted from periwinkle, a plant that grows in the Rainforest, has dramatically increased the survival rate for childhood leukemia and Hodgkin's disease since its discovery.
  
• Did you know? A quarter of the active ingredients currently used in cancer-fighting drugs come from organisms found Only in the Rainforest.
• Did you know? Since 1983, over a hundred pharmaceutical companies, including giants like Merck and The National Cancer Institute and several branches of the US government,  have been engaged in plant research projects for possible cures and drugs to fight cancer, viruses, infections, and even AIDS.