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 zero deforestation in the Amazon by 2015 and globally by 2020.
The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion
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 nations, some of which have never been contacted by non-indigenous people. Last but not least, the Amazon stores 80 to 120 billion tonnes of carbon and so helps to stabilise the planet's climate.
One fifth of the Amazon rainforest has already been destroyed by the timber industry, cattle ranching and the unsustainable expansion of crops like soya. Climate change is delivering another blow to this delicate ecosystem, causing a knock on effect of droughts and forest fires, which in turn cause more deforestation, which cause yet more climate change.
Greenpeace is campaigning to protect the Amazon from the endless encroachment of soya plantations, pastures of grazing cows and from destructive logging practices. We set up office in Manuas over a decade ago and, just three years later, our campaign heralded the end of the illegal mahogany trade in Brazil.
Greenpeace Amazon campaigner, Paulo, talks to loggers.
In 2006, with the help of our supporters, we convinced major soya traders operating in Brazil to agree to a two-year moratorium on soya grown in deforested areas. This moratorium is still in place - and still working to prevent deforestation.
Then we moved onto the worst offender - the Brazilian cattle industry - spending three years investigating the global trade in Amazon beef and leather from unscrupulous ranches which were destroying the Amazon. In 2009, we published our exposé, 'Slaughtering the Amazon', which persuaded the multi-national companies involved to lead cattle giants in Brazil to support a moratorium on destroying forests for cattle ranching.
Partly thanks to these moratoria, Amazon deforestation rates reached record lows in late 2010: proof that it is possible to halt deforestation at the same time as increasing economic prosperity.
But there is a long way to go before we realise our vision of zero deforestation in the Amazon - and globally. Please join the campaign to protect our forests, our biodiveristy and our environment: