AMAZON RAINFOREST

That Rainforests are vital for controlling climate change and counteracting global warming is common knowledge based on scientific fact. Metaphorically speaking they are the lungs of the world, producing 40% of the planet’s oxygen and are indispensable regulators of CO2 in the atmosphere.

The Amazon Rainforest, covering 5.5 million square kilometres, represents over half of the Rainforests remaining on this Earth today. Nurtured by the Andes mountain range, the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest forms the headwaters of the Amazon River basin, which is the source of 18% of our daily fresh water supply. Comprising 13 million hectares, this region is home to 30% of all biodiversity and is classified as a “Globally Outstanding Eco-region”, with a “Highest Priority status” attached to it for all forms of cooperation concerned with the protection of Tropical Rainforests, flora, fauna, fresh water supplies and the ancestral rights of the indigenous inhabitants.

Anyone who steps into the Rain Forest for the first time is literally overwhelmed by the magical beauty that nature puts on display. Words fall short to appropriately describe the unique and ever changing imagery on display, which simultaneously activate all five of our human senses; 1,160 trees species inhabit 25% of one square kilometre, equivalent of 100 tons of biomass, which is the highest in the world; 40,000 plus plants, 382 species of fish, 598 types of birds, 200 mammals, 420 amphibians, 121 reptiles, 700 medical plants and 70,000 classified insect genera.

Despite the universal significance of the Amazon, the heedless and irrational pace of human activity is undermining the Rainforest’s existence to an imminent point of no return; for the first time in history, areas of the Amazon are emitting more CO2 than the Rainforest can absorb. From June 2020 to July 2021, 11,100 square kilometres were deforested, a 67% increase from the previous year and the highest level since 2008; in Ecuador this figure peaked to 95,000 hectares over the past twelve months. Extractive industries, oil and mining in particular, monocrop agriculture, African palm and soya, and livestock husbandry are the driving forces behind this environmental disaster.

Join SELVA-Vida Sin Fronteras (RAINFOREST-Life Without Frontiers) in defending the Amazon. If we remain indifferent and do not take an active stand, we may not have any other alternative but to console ourselves with the wisdom of an old CREE Indigenous Prophesy:

ONLY when all the tree has been cut down,
ONLY when the last animal has been exterminated,
ONLY when the last river has been polluted,
ONLY when the air is unsafe to breathe,
ONLY THEN will you discover that money cannot be eaten.