Amazon

One fifth of the world's freshwater

The Amazon is the second longest river in the world (after the Nile), and the largest river in terms of volume of water discharged into the sea. It begins in the Andes of Peru and ends at the Atlantic Ocean where its brown waters can be seen 100 km out to sea from the mainland.

The Amazon spans the borders of Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname and the French Overseas Territory of Guyana.

With around 1,100 tributaries, the Amazon forms the largest basin in the world, which contains around 20% of the world’s freshwater.

Few places on the planet contain the biological diversity that can be found in the Amazon Basin. It has the largest number of freshwater fish species in the world, estimated at more than 3,000 species, including one of the largest scaled freshwater fishes in the world, Arapaima gigas, which can reach nearly 2.5 meter in length. The region is home to about 2.5 million insect species, tens of thousands of plants and 2,000 birds and mammals.

The Amazon Rainforest produces about 20% of the earth’s oxygen and is thus often described as the ‘lungs of the earth’.

Current threats
The Amazon is recognized as having the greatest biological diversity in the world. Nevertheless, its natural heritage is extremely threatened due to cattle ranching and agriculture, logging, mining, resettlement, oil and gas extraction, over-fishing, expansion of urban centres, wildlife trade, fire, climate change, dams and infrastructure, water contamination, and invasive species.

It is generally agreed that 10 to 12% of the original Amazon forest cover is now gone forever and WWF estimate that by 2020 around 25% of the forest will have disappeared.

In the flooded forests, selective logging of the kapok tree and virola is accelerating deforestation and wiping out populations of the above species over large regions. Open floodplains are being converted for cattle ranching, which can include introduced water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis).

Other threats include: overfishing - particularly of the largest species; mercury pollution from gold mining in smaller streams; increasing population centers and the resultant untreated sewage; construction of roads and dams that have the potential to block species movements and alter hydrology.

Partners
The Amazon Region Protected Areas (ARPA) is a programme led by the Government of Brazil, implemented in partnership with the Brazilian Biodiversity Fund (FUNBIO), the German Development Bank (KfW), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the World Bank and WWF.

Policy
ARPA is a ten year effort aimed at bringing 12% (50 million hectares or 500,000 km2) of the Brazilian Amazon under protection and establish a US$240 million endowment fund to finance the effective management of prected areas in perpurtuity. It was announced by the Brazilian government in 2002 and started to be implemented in 2003.