The Amazon

The Amazon: The World's Largest Rainforest

The Amazon River Basin is home to the largest
rainforest on Earth. The basin -- roughly the
size of the forty-eight contiguous
United States -- covers some 40% of the South
American continent and includes parts of eight
South American countries:
Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana,
and Suriname, as well as French Guiana, a department of France.

Reflecting environmental conditions
as well as past human influence, the Amazon
is made up of a mosaic of ecosystems and vegetation
types including rainforests, seasonal forests, deciduous
forests, flooded forests, and savannas. The basin is
drained by the Amazon River, the world's largest river
in terms of discharge, and the second longest river in the
world after the Nile. The river is made up of over 1,100
tributaries, 17 of which are longer than 1000 miles, and
two of which (the Negro and the Madeira) are larger, in
terms of volume, than the Congo (formerly the Zaire) river.
The river system is the lifeline of the forest and its history
plays an important part in the development of its rainforests.