The Amazon River Basin is home to the largest rainforest on Earth. Roughly the size of the forty-eight contiguous United States, the Amazon covers almost 40% of the South American continent and includes parts of eight South American countries: Brazil, Bolivia, Perú, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.

The Amazon is unrivaled in its biodiversity and is comprised of a complicated mosaic of ecosystems that include rainforests, seasonal forests, deciduous forests, flooded forests, and savannas. A healthy Amazon rainforest is critical to our well being as the Amazon basin has far reaching effects on our global climate. To maintain this delicate balance, we need to better understand the complex workings of the great rainforest before we inflict permanent damage.

Large tracts of pristine jungle are rapidly being destroyed and many diverse interests threaten to alter the rainforest forever. With these rapid changes come severe implications not only for the indigenous people who live there but for the rest of our green planet. By protecting the Amazon, we may provide humanity a window into our future and time to understand how to avoid environmental disasters we will certainly face should we alter it too much.