Amazon Rainforest

The Amazon rainforest is the largest tropical rainforest in the world, covering over five and a half a million square kilometres (1.4 billion acres).
Over half of the Amazon rainforest is located in Brazil but it is also located in other South American countries including Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Guyana, Bolivia, Suriname and French Guiana.
10% of the world’s known species live in the Amazon rainforest.
20% of the world’s bird species live in the Amazon rainforest.
It is home to around 2 and a half million different insect species as well as over 40000 plant species.
There are also a number of dangerous species living in the Amazon rainforest such as the cougar, jaguar and anaconda.
While the protection of the Amazon rainforest remains an issue, deforestation rates have been reducing while areas of conserved land have been increasing over the last 10 years.
In both 2005 and 2010 the Amazon rainforest suffered severe droughts that killed off large amounts of vegetation in the worst affected areas.
A recent study by climate change experts suggests that a 3 °C rise in world temperatures by the year 2010 would destroy around 75% of the Amazon.

The Amazon rainforest is a moist, broadleaf forest.
It covers most of the Amazon Basin in South America. The basin is 2.7 million square miles while the Amazon covers 2.1 million square miles of it. If the Amazon rainforest was a country, it would rank 9th in size.
The Amazon rainforest accounts for more than half of the entire world's remaining rainforests.
There are over 40,000 different plant species and approximately 2.5 million insect species in the Amazon rainforest.
Due to efforts to fight deforestation in the Amazon, rates have been reducing slightly, but it is still an issue today.
The Amazon rainforest is also referred to as the ‘Lungs of the Planet' because it produces more than 20% of the world's oxygen.
There are approximately 10 million species of animals, plants and insects known to man and more than half of them call the rainforest home.
There are approximately 3000 fruits that grow in the rainforest that are edible.
Many plants around the world have medicinal qualities. Of the plants known to have anti-cancer properties, 70% are found in the rainforest. Amazon natives use rainforest plants regularly but 90% of the ones they use have not been studied by modern science.