The Amazon

Our Amazon

 

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Water resource
  • Regional and global water reserve
  • Regulates the regional planet’s climate (carbon absorption and evapotranspiration processes)
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Population and economy
  • Amazon Basin: 40 million inhabitants
  • 400 indigenous peoples, who speak more than 300 languages ​​(with their many dialect variants)
  • 53% agricultural activities
  • 31% trade
  • 16% manufacturing
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Biodiversity and ecosystems
Endemic species:
  • 30,000 plant species
  • 3,000 species of fish
  • 384 species of amphibians
  • 550 species of reptiles
  • 950 species of birds
  • 350 species of mammals and
  • 57 species of primates
Ecosystems:
  • 67.4% of tropical forest and
  • 13.3% of tropical savannas

 

The Amazon Region has about 80.25% of the ecoregions associated with tropical rainforest, which represents approximately 6.3 million km2 of the total of the Region, considered the Amazon Biome, which covers more than 95% of the Amazon portion that ACTO Member Countries have, with the exception of Brazil, which corresponds to between 80 and 85% of the tropical rainforest and about 13.3% of the biomes of grasslands and savannas.
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Physical
  • Flow rate 220,000 a
  • 300,000 m3/s in the rainy season.
  • Length: 6,992 km
  • River basin area: 6,118,000 km²
  • Hydrographic Units level 4: 637
    Main contributors: Putumayo, Japurá and Negro river (north slope), Juruá, Purús, Madeira, Tapajós and Xingú (south slope)
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Hydroclimatic Threats
  • 50% for floods
  • 19% due to droughts
  • 14% for landslides
  • 11% due to alluvium
  • 4% for fires forestry
  • 2% for torrential avenues
  • 0.3% due to water deficit and mud flows
The tropical forest biome has 50% of the planet’s existing biodiversity (Orians, 1993)
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The most extensive and biodiversity-rich jungle on the planet
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The largest and longest river on the planet
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The Amazon River is born at 5,597 meters above sea level, in the Quebrada de Apacheta, Arequipa, Peruvian Andes, on the slopes of the Quehuisha volcano.

 

The Amazon is crucial to maintaining global climate balance. It has a great influence on heat and water vapor transportation to higher latitude regions. It also has a particularly important role on atmospheric carbon sequestration, and consequently it contributes to the reduction of global warming.

All what is known about the Amazon is that it is huge, big, challenging and often immeasurable. The challenges of the past and future appear to impose in the present. It is essential to better understand its peculiarities and characteristics to act in benefit of the region.

The Amazon is more than half of the world’s tropical rainforest and it is the world’s largest tropical forest. The region represents between 4 and 6% of the earth’s total surface and between 25 and 40% of the surface of America.

The Amazon is also a synonym of cultural diversity, which is the result of a historical process of land occupation and interaction among different ethnic and geographical origin groups.

The Amazonian Hydrological Cycle feeds a complex system of aquifers and groundwater, which can cover nearly 4 million square kilometers among Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.

The Amazon is home to a variety of flora and fauna thereby allowing global brands of biodiversity to be set. It is also an important endemic area and is therefore a genetic reserve of global importance for the development of mankind.