The Amazon River Basin, which makes up the overwhelming portion of the neotropical rainforest, covers some 40% of the South American continent. This Amazon rainforest dwarfs all other forests in Central and South America. The Amazon rainforest is roughly the size of the forty-eight contiguous United States. It is the largest continuous rainforest on Earth. Four-fifths of the Amazon is still intact and healthy.

Logging is heavy in certain areas but there is still debate over the adverse effects. Oil and gas, cattle and agriculture are major causes of neotropical deforestation.

Review Rainforest Information by Country:

Belize
Bolivia
Brazil
Caribbean Islands
Colombia
Costa Rica
Ecuador
El Salvador
French Guiana
Guatemala
Guyana
Honduras
Mexico
Nicaragua
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Suriname
Venezuela

Current Status

According to the United Nations 95% of the neotropical forest realm of Central America, South America, and the Caribbean is in tropical rain forests. South America has within its countries over 97% of these forests, which include the world's largest tropical rainforest- that of the Amazon Basin rainforest.

Background

By far, the largest numbers and sizes of contiguous rainforests are located in one geographical section of the World - the Neotropical region and specifically, the Amazon Basin.
Rainforests of the Amazon Basin are being logged. Over 30 million acres of forest land have been purchased just by Asian logging firms in the last few years.

Throughout the region, rainforest area is being reduced by large scale agriculture, logging, and subsistence agriculture by poor peasants following newly opened logging roads and taking advantage of government sponsored settlement projects.

The Good and Bad News>>>