Let's find out about the Amazon rainforest together! 🌎
Like all forests, it is a small universe in its own right, in which species, plants and animals, play a fundamental role in mutual survival.
The Amazon is the largest rainforest in the world: it extends for more than 6 million square kilometers and touches 9 states in South America including Peru and Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador , Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. Its most impressive segment is located in Brazil: here its dimensions exceed those of Western Europe! 🗺
The biodiversity of the Amazon is incredible! There are more than 1,200 species of birds, 3,000 fish and 3 million insects and invertebrates.
And the number is growing visibly: according to a National Geographic report, new animal species are discovered every two days. More than 380 new species of plants, fish, amphibians and mammals were discovered between 2014 and 2015. You can also find some rarer and more curious animals such as the pink dolphin, the bear with glasses, the Goliath Tarantula and the Spider Monkey; all species that you would not be able to see anywhere else because they have chosen the Amazon as their home. 🦋
The Amazon rainforest is home to a huge number of plants: there are more than 400 billion trees, even if the estimate according to the WWF is tragically destined to decrease in the coming years to cause of illegal deforestation.
Of all the plants discovered in the rainforest, 75% are found only here and nowhere else in the world: in addition to providing oxygen to the planet, the trees of the Amazon are resilient and self-sufficient! Thanks to the water vapor that is created with photosynthesis, the trees themselves cause the rains they need to grow and live. 🌱
The Amazon is not just the home of animals and plants. The Indians of the Amazon are the populations who survived the adversity and conquests of foreign peoples who still live along the rivers in stilt houses. There are about 400 tribes and some of these no one has any news, because they have lived away from society for decades without any contact with the outside world.
The most famous Amazonian tribes are those of the Tupi, Terena and Karajá but the real charm of a land like the Amazon lies in what has not yet been discovered, in the populations or in the small ones communities that populate it and live hidden from the eyes of the world. The tribes that populate the ’Amazonia speak 330 different languages and some of these are spoken by very small groups, even composed of only 500 people! 🗿
It is clear the role played by the Amazon forest with its biodiversity and variety, a fundamental role for the whole planet and for the survival of our species. 🤍
Do we need more reasons to protect this place?