Amazon

The Amazon is the planet's largest remaining rainforest, teeming with more wildlife than anywhere else on Earth. But this majestic rainforest is caught between the twin destructive forces of deforestation and climate change. Greenpeace is campaigning for an end to deforestation in the Amazon by 2015 and globally by 2020.

The Amazon is a vast and majestic rainforest teeming with an estimated quarter of all known land species. The jaguar, the pink river dolphin, the sloth, the world's largest flower, a monkey the size of a toothbrush and a spider the size of a baseball are just a few of the species that we know about - there are many more yet to be discovered.

It is also home to over 20 million people including hundreds of indigenous peoples, some of which have never been contacted by the 'outside world'.

And finally, the Amazon stores 80 to 120 billion tonnes of carbon, helping to stabilise the planet's climate.

The latest updates

 

The Amazon Soya Moratorium

Feature story | 15 December, 2015 at 13:00

The rise of soya in the Brazilian economy and how it threatened to become the next big Amazon destroyer.

Will Europe lead the way towards 'zero deforestation'?

Blog entry by Sébastien Risso | 2 December, 2015 2 comments

From the time we're in school, we are taught that forests absorb and store carbon dioxide, one of the main greenhouse gases (GHG) responsible for climate change, and that they produce and release oxygen. Yet despite the essential role...

Uprooting illegal logging: From the Amazon to the EU

Blog entry by An Lambrechts | 20 November, 2015

Illegal logging in the Brazilian Amazon is vast in scale and scope – impacting both rainforest communities and crucial habitat. This past August – during my first visit to the Brazilian Amazon – my Brazilian colleagues visited the...

Dam collapse in Brazil destroys towns and turns river into muddy wasteland

Blog entry by Bruno Weis | 17 November, 2015 9 comments

On Thursday, November 5th, two dams holding millions of cubic meters of mining waste gave way – launching one of the worst environmental disasters in Brazilian history. Over 25,000 Olympic swimming pools worth of mud –...

Indigenous lands are going up in smoke in the Amazon - because of illegal logging

Blog entry by Luana Lila | 24 October, 2015

In just two months, fire has consumed over 45 percent of the Amazon rainforest in the Arariboia Indigenous Land – an area of protected forest that is home to thousands of people. And despite their efforts, the fire continues to rage...

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