No Home Without the Trees
Every acre lost to deforestation brings worsening threats to the Amazon and its incredible diversity of life.
No one knows exactly how many species live in the Amazon rainforest.
Most estimates agree that approximately one-third of all the world’ s terrestrial species can be found within the Amazon. The exact number is more challenging to determine, largely because previously undescribed species are still being found with surprising regularity. During one recent two-year study, for example, researchers identified nearly 400 new-toscience species for an average of one species documented approximately every other day.
Today’ s best estimates put the total species count for the Amazon at more than 40,000 plant species and likely many more than 100,000 animal species, including more than 400 mammals and 1,000 birds. But the numbers could be much higher; some estimates place the overall species count at 1 million or more. The Amazon is also the ancestral and current home to many of the world’ s Indigenous Peoples.
If the Amazon’ s ecosystem were to collapse, the loss of life and biodiversity would be devastating.
This is not an idle worry. The relentless onslaught of deforestation— largely due to livestock farming— has already shrunk the outer edges of the world’ s largest rainforest and carved out great holes within its interior. If much more is lost, the entire ecosystem could change forever, transitioning from the Amazon rainforest to the Amazon savanna.( See page 4 to read more about this tipping point and the urgent race to prevent it.)
From habitat fragmentation and drought to climate change and forest fires, many species are already feeling the consequences of these lost acres and trees.
Your support makes all the difference. See page 12 to learn more about our donor-supported Brazilian Amazon Fund and the many millions of acres we are protecting together.
Tree in the Brazilian Amazon | Robson Viajante
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