Facts and Figures

Illegal and destructive logging is one of the biggest threats to the Amazon Rainforest with between 60 and 80 percent of logging being illegal.

Between August 2003 and August 2004, 26,130 square km, 2.6 million hectares of forest was destroyed, this was the second highest in Brazilian history.

In the last 30 years, we have lost 15 percent of the Brazilian Amazon - 50 million hectares, an area the size of France, bigger than all of Japan or the state of Texas and almost the size of Chile.

Around 1,000 of Brazil's recorded species of higher plants and animals are considered under immediate threat of extinction.

A handful of large companies from Europe, Asia and the US control more than 12 percent of the Amazon's timber processing capacity and almost half of the export value.

Over the past 10 years the production of industrial round wood in the Brazilian Amazon increased by approximately 19 percent over the previous decade. Areas designated for protection increased only marginally, from 3.8 to 4.4 percent of Brazil's landmass.

Productive conservation

If all traditional indigenous territory in Brazil was officially mapped and demarcated, approximately 20 percent of the Amazon rainforest would gain protected status.

Over two-thirds of all mass-produced pharmaceutical drugs are derived from medicinal plants. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 80 percent of the world's people use plants to treat a wide range of illnesses from headaches to infections. The medicinal potential of plants of the Amazon has only just begun to be realised internationally. At present, close to 650 species of plant with pharmaceutical properties and economic value from the Amazon have been assessed.

Forty-eight native fruits of the Amazon have been identified as having the potential for sale on the international market. The fruits of the Acai Palm found in the Amazon, are traditionally used to make a type of juice that is rich in minerals. A single palm tree produces up to 20 kg of fruit per year. In 1995 almost 106,000 tonnes of juice was produced at a value of US$40 million.

Eco-tourism in the Amazon has huge potential but is at present managed in an unsatisfactory way. Eco-tourism has the potential to guarantee minimal environmental impact on the Amazon rainforest through the application of environmentally friendly technologies and environmentally sympathetic accommodation for visitors. It could also guarantee that the income received from such activities would directly benefit the local communities.

"Short of a miraculous transformation in the attitude of people and governments, the Earth's remaining closed canopy forests and their associated biodiversity are destined to disappear in the coming decades," said Klaus Toepfer, Director of the United National Environment Program, on August 21, 2001.