Explores the richness of the Amazon rainforest, how humans have damaged it, and efforts being taken to protect it. Clear text, vibrant photos, and helpful infographics make this book an accessible and engaging read.

Explores the richness of the Amazon rainforest, how humans have damaged it, and efforts being taken to protect it. Clear text, vibrant photos, and helpful infographics make this book an accessible and engaging read.

The Amazon Rainforest: A Hidden Symphony Exploring the Amazon Rainforest invites you on an awe-inspiring journey through the heart of the world’s most legendary rainforest—the Amazon. Within its emerald embrace lies a vibrant tapestry of life, where every leaf, every insect, and every whispering breeze contributes to a symphony of existence. From the elusive jaguar’s golden eyes to the intricate dance of leaf-cutter ants, Exploring the Amazon Rainforest dares you to explore. Venture beyond the familiar and discover the magic of biodiversity—the heartbeat of our planet. Learn about how climate change has affected the Amazon and organizations' conservational efforts are aiding in the preservation of the Amazon Rainforest. Embark on a quest to unlock the Amazon’s secrets. Are you ready to listen to nature’s symphony?

This book is the most updated and comprehensive look at efforts to protect the Amazon, home to half of the world’s remaining tropical forests. In the past five years, the Basin’s countries have become the cutting edge of environmental enforcement through formation of constitutional protections, military operations, stringent laws, police forces, judicial procedures and societal efforts that together break through barriers that have long restrained decisive action. Even such advances, though, struggle to curb devastation by oil extraction, mining, logging, dams, pollution, and other forms of ecocide. In every country, environmental protection is crippled by politics, bureaucracy, unclear laws, untrained officials, small budgets, regional rivalries, inter-ministerial competition, collusion with criminals, and the global demand for oils and minerals. Countries are better at creating environmental agencies, that is, than making sure that they work. This book explains why, with country studies written by those on the front lines—from national enforcement directors to biologists and activists.

"Amazonian Life: A Journey Through the Heart of the Rainforest" explores the rich biodiversity, indigenous cultures, and pressing conservation challenges of the Amazon Rainforest. Through vivid narratives and in-depth analysis, this book reveals the profound significance of this vital ecosystem and the urgent need to protect it for future generations.

The Amazon is a land of superlatives. The complex ecosystem covers an area about the size of the continental U.S. The Amazon River discharges 57 million gallons of water per second--in two hours, this would be enough to supply all of New York City's 7.5 million residents with water for a year. Its flora and fauna are abundant. Approximately one of every four flowering plant species on earth resides in the Amazon. A single Amazonian river may contain more fish species than all the rivers in Europe combined. It is home to the world's largest anteater, armadillo, freshwater turtle, and spider, as well as the largest rodent (which weighs over 200 lbs.), catfish (250 lbs.), and alligator (more than half a ton). The rainforest, which contains approximately 390 billion trees, plays a vital role in stabilizing the global climate by absorbing massive amounts of carbon dioxide--or releasing it into the atmosphere if the trees are destroyed. Severe droughts in both Brazil and Southeast Asia have been linked to Amazonian deforestation, as have changing rainfall patterns in the U.S., Europe, and China. The Amazon also serves as home to millions of people. Approximately seventy tribes of isolated and uncontacted people are concentrated in the western Amazon, completely dependent on the land and river. These isolated groups have been described as the most marginalized peoples in the western hemisphere, with no voice in the decisions made about their futures and the fate of their forests. In this addition to the What Everyone Needs to Know® series, ecologist and conservation expert, Mark J. Plotkin, who has spent 40 years studying Amazonia, its peoples, flora, and fauna. The Amazon offers an engaging overview of this irreplaceable ecosystem and the challenges it faces.

The Amazon rainforest, the world's largest tropical rainforest and an important constituent of the global biosphere, continues degrading by rapid deforestation, which is expected to continue despite policies to prevent it. Current international funding to protect the Amazon rainforest focuses on benefits from reduced carbon emissions. This paper examines an additional rationale for Amazon protection: the valuation of its biodiversity and forests as natural heritage to the international community. To measure the economic value of this benefit, the paper examines U.S. and Canadian households' willingness to pay to help finance Amazon rainforest protection. The analysis finds that mean willingness to pay to avoid forest losses projected to occur by 2050 despite current protective policies is USD 92 per household per year. Aggregating across all households and considering the area protected, the analysis finds that preserving the Amazon rainforest is worth USD 3,168 per hectare (95-percent confidence interval USD 1,580-USD 4,756), on average, to households in the United States and Canada. Considering households in other developed countries would generate yet larger estimates of aggregate value, likely comparable to the carbon benefits from rainforest protection. The results reveal high values of the Amazon rainforest to people geographically distanced from it, lending support to international efforts to reduce deforestation in the Amazon.