Amazon Rain Forest

      The Amazon Rain Forest

  The Amazon River Basin is home to the largest rain forest on Earth..Today the Amazon River is the most voluminous river on Earth, eleven times the volume of the Mississippi, and drains an area equivalent in size to the United States. During the high water season, the river's mouth may be 300 miles wide and every day up to 500 billion cubic feet of water (5,787,037 cubic feet/sec) flow into the Atlantic..

The Amazon is home to more species of plants and animals than any other terrestrial ecosystem on the planet -- perhaps 30% of the world's species are found there. Its biodiversity is astounding: a single bush in the Amazon may have more species of ants than the entire British Isles, while a lone hectare of forest may have more than 480 species of trees. Take a look at some of these examples of the Amazon's biological richness: Mammals Birds Reptiles Amphibians Fish Insects The Amazon rain forest is the largest tropical rain forest in the world, covering over five and a half a million square KiloMetres (1.4 billion acres). Over half of the Amazon rain forest 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 rain forest. 20% of the world’s bird species live in the Amazon rain forest. 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. Amazon Deforestation Amazon is the most biggest Rain forest on earth.this contains the major potion of all organisms on earth..But ,now these resources are facing serious threats of destruction.. Between May 2000 and August 2005, Brazil lost more than 132,000 square kilometers of forest—an area larger than Greece—and since 1970, over 600,000 square kilometers (232,000 square miles) of Amazon rain forest have been destroyed. Why is Brazil losing so much forest? What can be done to slow deforestation?  In many tropical countries, the majority of deforestation results from the actions of poor subsistence cultivators. However, in Brazil only about one-third of recent deforestation can be linked to "shifted" cultivators. A large portion of deforestation in Brazil can be attributed to land clearing for pastureland by commercial and speculative interests, misguided government policies, inappropriate World Bank projects, and commercial exploitation of forest resources. For effective action it is imperative that these issues be addressed. Focusing solely on the promotion of sustainable use by local people would neglect the most important forces behind deforestation in Brazil.  Colonization and subsequent subsistence agriculture A significant amount of deforestation is caused by the subsistence activities of poor farmers who are encouraged to settle on forest lands by government land policies. In Brazil, each squatter acquires the right (known as a usufruct right) to continue using a piece of land by living on a plot of unclaimed public land (no matter how marginal the land) and "using" it for at least one year and a day. After five years the squatter acquires ownership and hence the right to sell the land. Up until at least the mid-1990's this system was worsened by the government policy that allowed each claimant to gain title for an amount of land up to three times the amount of forest cleared. Poor farmers use fire for clearing land and every year satellite images pick up tens of thousands of fires burning across the Amazon. Typically under story shrubbery is cleared and then forest trees are cut. The area is left to dry for a few months and then burned. The land is planted with crops like bananas, palms, manioc, maize, or rice. After a year or two, the productivity of the soil declines, and the transient farmers press a little deeper and clear new forest for more short-term agricultural land. The old, now infertile fields are used for small-scale cattle grazing or left for waste. Between 1995 and 1998, the government granted land in the Amazon to roughly 150,000 families. Forty-eight percent of forest loss in 1995 was in areas under 125 acres (50 hectares) in size, suggesting that both loggers and peasants are significant contributors to deforestation We must take appropriate actions to prevaent the massive destruction of the world's enchanting source of life,the Amazon... pls visit this link to see more