Vanishing wonder
The Amazon is the world?s largest rainforest. It is also the biggest river basin. Its borders are in eight countries. It has 20 per cent of all our free-flowing fresh water.
As the WWF says, protecting it is vital for the planet?s health. But we are chopping and burning the Amazon down.
So far, more than 600,000 square kilometres of the Amazon?s rainforest is gone ? or has been deforested. At this rate, about half of it will be gone by 2030. The main reason for the deforestation is cattle raising. Cattle need lots of land to graze.
Under siege
Experts think that rainforests once covered 14 per cent of the planet's land surface. Now they only cover 6 per cent. Every day, more than 130 plant, animal and insect species disappear. Most of them live in rainforests.
