Tourists are especially prone to sickness while traveling in the Amazon rainforest. According to Goparoo Travel Guide, the biggest threat comes from mosquitoes carrying malaria and yellow fever. These are both serious illnesses, so get the appropriate vaccinations before you go to the Amazon.
While laws exist which authorize logging in designated areas, illegal logging is widespread in Brazil and several Amazon countries. A study by a Brazilian commission showed that 80% of all logging in the Amazon was illegal during the late 90s2. Of the 13 companies that were investigated, 12 had broken the law.
Incidentally, the most common tree species in Amazonia is the palm species Euterpe precatoria, a relative of the açaí palm Euterpe oleracea), whose sweet berries are growing in popularity worldwide. The researchers estimate that 5.2 billion Euterpe precatoria live in Amazonia.
Of the 40,000 plants known to exist in the Amazon, 75% are endemic or only found in the Amazon [1]. These include bromeliads, palms, epiphytes, vines, ferns, lilies, orchids and trees (see Trees).
Loss rates
| Period | Estimated remaining forest cover in the Brazilian Amazon (km2) | Percent of 1970 cover remaining |
|---|
| 2016 | 3,322,796 | 81.0% |
| 2017 | 3,315,849 | 80.9% |
| 2018 | 3,308,313 | 80.7% |
| 2019 | 3,298,551 | 80.5% |
Cattle ranching and infrastructureSeventy per cent of formerly forested land in the Amazon, and 91% of land deforested since 1970, is used for livestock pasture. The Brazilian government initially attributed 38% of all forest loss between 1966 and 1975 to large-scale cattle ranching.
Between 1990 and 2016, the world lost 1.3 million square kilometers of forest. Since humans started cutting down forests, 46% of trees have been felled, according to a 2015 study.
- Cargill.
- BlackRock.
- Wilmar International Ltd.
- Walmart.
- JBS.
- IKEA.
- Korindo Group PT.
- Yakult Honsha Co.
And there are other very serious long-term consequences to destroying Earth's most biodiverse region. Burning away the Amazon would condemn millions of living species to extinction and destroy their habitats. Many of these plants, animals, and other forms of life haven't even been identified by science yet.
The longer answer: It would take time — and effective efforts to leave the forest alone. “Naturally regenerating tropical forests take about 20 years for forest cover to come back,” Alexandre said.
Cattle ranching is the leading cause of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. In Brazil, this has been the case since at least the 1970s: government figures attributed 38 percent of deforestation from 1966-1975 to large-scale cattle ranching. Today the figure in Brazil is closer to 70 percent.
More than half of Earth's rain forests have already been lost due to the human demand for wood and arable land. And if current deforestation rates continue, these critical habitats could disappear from the planet completely within the next hundred years.
People cut down trees for lots of reasons. This is because people need to build stores, houses, and other buildings. People also cut down trees to clear land for agricultural use. In some cases, trees are cut down for wood for fires to heat up their homes and cook food.
Unbelievably, more than 200,000 acres of rainforest are burned every day. That is more than 150 acres lost every minute of every day, and 78 million acres lost every year! More than 20 percent of the Amazon rainforest is already gone, and much more is severely threatened as the destruction continues.
Indonesia has the highest deforestation rate in the world, losing 15 million acres of forest between 2000 and 2012.
Keeping forests intact also helps prevent floods and drought by regulating regional rainfall. And because many indigenous and forest peoples rely on tropical forests for their livelihoods, investments in reducing deforestation provide them with the resources they need for sustainable development without deforestation.
1. Beef production is the top driver of deforestation in the world's tropical forests. The forest conversion it generates more than doubles that generated by the production of soy, palm oil, and wood products (the second, third, and fourth biggest drivers) combined.
The Amazon is the world's largest rainforest. It's home to more than 30 million people and one in ten known species on Earth.
The Amazon is a vast region that spans across eight rapidly developing countries: Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, an overseas territory of France. The landscape contains: One in ten known species on Earth.
The "uncontacted tribes", as they are popularly known, mostly live in Brazil and Peru. The number of indigenous people living in the Amazon Basin is poorly quantified, but some 20 million people in 8 Amazon countries and the Department of French Guiana are classified as "indigenous".
A forest has many tall trees and can usually be traveled through by humans. The word 'jungle' is usually used to describe a tangled or overgrown mass of vegetation over a large area of land. A jungle usually has a tropical or humid climate and many plants on the ground between trees and larger plants.
A rainforest, like a jungle, is filled with thick vegetation—but unlike a jungle, it has a layer of tall trees, called a canopy, that blocks out most of the sunlight. So while jungles have a ton of stuff happening below your feet, rainforests don't—most of the action is happening in the trees above.
There are many varieties of coconut trees. The coconut grows in rainforests and other tropical of climates. The coconut fruit has a hard outside and white meat beneath with a hollow center in which there is coconut milk. After the clusters of flowers bloom they develop into coconuts.
As to the “number of trees” this represents, it's impossible to get an accurate count. Tree density in primary forests varies from 50,000-100,000 trees per square km, so the math would put this number at 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees cut down each year.
One year has passed since the world was shocked by the images of the fires blazing across the Amazon in Brazil. But since then, the forest hasn't stopped burning —and 2020 could be even more devastating for the rainforest and the Indigenous Peoples who call it home.
A forest, according to Webster's New World Dictionary, is "a thick growth of trees and underbrush covering an extensive tract of land." A wood, on the other hand, is defined as "a thick grove of trees" in the same dictionary.
Decomposers, such as termites, slugs, scorpions, worms, and fungi, thrive on the forest floor. Organic matter falls from trees and plants, and these organisms break down the decaying material into nutrients.
There are 3 levels in the tropical rainforest. The canopy is the top layer that covers most of the forest. The middle level is called the understory, and the bottom level is called the forest floor. Each layer is home to many different animals.
The rainforest floor is often dark and humid due to constant shade from the canopy's leaves. Despite its constant shade, the rainforest floor is an important part of the forest ecosystem. The forest floor is where decomposition takes place.
A Rainforest can be described as a tall, dense jungle. The reason it is called a "rain" forest is because of the high amount of rainfall it gets per year. The climate of a rain forest is very hot and humid so the animals and plants that exist there must learn to adapt to this climate.
Drip TipsThe leaves of forest trees have adapted to cope with exceptionally high rainfall. Many tropical rainforest leaves have a drip tip. It is thought that these drip tips enable rain drops to run off quickly.
In a temperate forest, a lot more sunlight finds its way to the forest floor, which means the plants that grow there don't have to struggle to survive in low light conditions. Here you'll find grass, fungi, lichen, and moss growing below the shrub layer.
Scientists estimate that there are more than 50 million different species of invertebrates living in rainforests. One scientist found 50 different species of ants on a single tree in Peru!
