Amazon Rainforest
in South America
Describing the Amazonia
Located in South America and known as the world's greatest natural resources, the Amazon Rainforest produces 20% of the Earth's oxygen. This rainforest gets its name from its life source, the Amazon River, which is about 4,000 miles long. The Amazon receives about 9 feet of rain fall each year. The canopy of the Amazonia is the home of 500 mammals, 175 lizards and over 300 other reptiles species, and one third of the world's birds.The Amazon rainforest consists of four layers or communities, with emergent is the tallest and the forest floor as the very bottom. Each layer has unique ecosystems, plants, and animals adapted to that system.
Helping the Amazon
The Amazon Conservation Association, WWF, and The Forest Trust are organization that support conservation-related activities in the Amazon, from establishing community-based conservation projects to maintaining parks and reserves.
Effects of Ecotourism in the Rainforest
Visitors have dumped non-biodegradable rubbish into some of these ecosystems, and also recreational activities such as four-wheel driving have destroyed soil and vegetation. People have also destroyed vegetation by removing plants and shrubs from the rainforests to make room for walking trails.
Effects of Hunting and Fishing
Jaguars
Hunting or poaching animals, such as Jaguars, cause damage to the rainforest ecosystem by removing species key to the system's functioning. The loss of one species can mean extinction for many others.
Bufferflies
Pollinators, like butterflies, can influence the structure of a forest. Heavy bushmeat hunting changes the forest composition by favoring small-seeded trees over large-seeded, leading to lower tree diversity of trees that have big seeds.
Macaw
Even hunting an animal, like the macaw, can alter the rainforest. Hunting these birds can make these birds extinct and the food they eat can grow by huge numbers.