Amazon

The largest remaining tropical forest in the world, the Amazon rainforest is as large as Western Europe or the whole of the US. It actually covers 5 percent of the world's land and extends over some 6.5 million square kilometres.

It is thought to be the most diverse ecosystem on Earth. It is home to nearly 10 percent of the world's mammals and a staggering 15 percent of the world's known land-based pant species, with as many as 300 species of tree in a single hectare.

The Amazon in Brazil alone is also home to more than 20 million people, including an estimated 220,000 people from 180 different indigenous nations. These people rely on this ancient forest for their way of life. It provides almost everything from food and shelter to tools and medicines as well as playing a crucial role in people's spiritual and cultural life. It also plays a vital role keeping the world's climate stable.

All this is threatened by deforestation fuelled by a demand for cheap supplies of plywood and tropical timber locally and abroad or the agricultural invasion to grow commodities such as soy mainly used to feed animal in European countries. Between 60 and 80 percent of all logging in the Brazilian Amazon is estimated to be illegal and more than one million hectares within the Amazon rainforests are already being use to grow soy.

The Amazon rainforest is not only one of the richest and most biologically diverse regions on the planet, it is also one of the most threatened.