The Amazon
The Amazon is the largest tropical forest community in the world. Covering over 300 million hectares (times 2.46 acres), the Amazon houses 50 to 90% of all living species on Earth (Wilson 1992). Some forests within the Amazon support over 300 species of trees per hectare; this is equivalent to the number of all tree species existing in all of North America.
3 million hectares of the Amazon Basin is deforested per year. In step with what amounts to an elimination of 1% of the Amazon annually, an extinction rate of 11 to 16 species per day is posited; has been assumed according to research, although no one knows for sure (Wilson 1989), Not even the degree of magnitude of species is ascertained; no one has categorized them, identified them, or defined their associations and relationships within that marvelous Biome of the Earth.
The surest, and perhaps the only, way to save the rainforests is for citizens of the industrialized world to pay for their protection.
