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The Amazon rainforest is the biggest
forest in the world and is also the last big space covered with
tropical plants and animals. The Amazon forest territory is a
tropical rainforest located in the north side of the South
American continent and is shared by 9 countries:
Brazil, Bolivia,
Ecuador,
Peru,
Colombia, Venezuela, Suriname, French Guiana and
Guiana. Travel through the forest can be difficult, and a guide or
an Amazon River tour are the best options to see the natural wonders
of the rain forest.
The largest part of the Amazon rainforest is located in Brazil (60%) and covers almost
half of that country. The space covered with the forest is 5.5
million square kilometers (3.4 million square miles ). When the Old
World explorers reached the Americas they were all looking for gold,
silver and gems. The Portuguese explorers that colonized Brazil
believed that somewhere in that huge forest they would find the
"Eldorado", an entire city made of gold that has an almost
intangible value. This hoax came along with the myth that the
Eldorado was guarded by the women warrior race of the Amazons.
Expeditions started to go up the Amazon River trying to find the El
Dorado. There was a race to find the gold before the Spanish and
French arrived, and found it on their own. They never found the
Eldorado or the Amazons, but the name was set.
The "Rain" forest is a nickname that describes the humidity that you
find in tropical and equatorial forests, but it doesn't rain all the
time. Tropical rainforests are always located near the equator, and
are very hot. All this heat associated with great portions of water
make a lot of evaporation into the air. The forest also helps to
retain water in their branches, roots and soil. All of this makes
these forests very humid and there's a well defined rainy season
that works towards the establishment of this nickname for tropical
and equatorial forest.
All this heat, rain and humidity make these forests a very rich
ecosystem or habitat for many organisms. A rainforest has trees,
like any other forest, but they are very different from the
temperate forest you are used to seeing in colder places like in US,
Europe and parts of Asia. There are 120 foot trees, thousands of
different species of plants, and all sort of rainforest animals
including the red eyed tree frog, insects, birds, reptiles,
amphibians and mammals. The rainforest canopy is home to thousands
of animal species. The bio diversity one can experience here is
unparalleled. And the most amazing part is that all this apparent
chaos is actually a very balanced system, a product of million of
years of evolution and natural selection.
But the forest is not only populated by animals and plants, there
are many humans there too. The Indians are part of the equilibrium
that existed there for thousands of years. The indigenous tribes of
the forest live off the land as their ancestors have for thousands
of years. The other humans, not native, have settled there for
different reasons, but are always looking for opportunities in this
unexplored land. Sometimes (usually) this has a negative impact over
the forest. The idea of learning how to live from the forest by the
forest is something that is not easy, but not impossible either.
There are many examples of sustainable use. This type of information
needs to become more popular, as deforestation is becoming a danger
to the existence of the forest. While logging and forest clearing
may be profitable in the short run, in the long run it is a danger
to the amazon. It is also a danger the growing eco tourism that is a
major attraction to the Amazon for tourists.
Amazonia is a huge and very complex place where nature created a
unique set of biological and geological cycles, hardly seen in other
places, and where mankind developed different cultures, languages,
and art. The mysteries and awe around the Amazon jungle is something
we should know and need to protect. There are several programs where
one can buy an acre to save the land from harm.
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