Amazon Rainforest Facts

Area: Seven million square kilometres spread in 9 South American nations: Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Venezuela, Suriname, and French Guiana. It's the largest rainforest on Earth, as large as Western Europe or the whole of the US. It covers around 40% of the South American continent.

Ecosystem: The Amazon Rainforest accounts for more than half of the planet's remaining tropical forests, and it is thought to be the most diverse ecosystem on Earth: more than 1/3 of all species in the world live here. It has the world's highest diversity of birds (some 1.300 species) and freshwater fish (3.000 species), as well as 10% of Earth's mammals (more than 400 species) and 15% of land-based plant species, with as many as 300 species of tree in a single hectare.

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