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SOUTH AMERICA

The Amazon is a rainforest in South America. It encompasses 1.2 billion acres (7 million km), with parts located within nine nations: Brazil (with 60 percent of the rainforest), Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. This forest represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforests and lies in a basin drained largely by the Amazon River.

The region is home to 2.5 million insect species, tens of thousands of plants, and some 2000 birds and mammals. The diversity of plant species is the highest on earth with some experts estimating that one square kilometre may contain over 75,000 types of trees and 150,000 species of higher plants. One square kilometre of Amazon rainforest can contain about 90,000 tons of living plants. This constitutes the largest collection of living plants and animal species in the world. One in five of all the birds in the world live in the rainforests of the Amazon. To date, an estimated 438,000 species of plants of economic and social interest have been registered in the region with many more remaining to be discovered or catalogued

There has been concern among environmentalists for many years, regarding the deforestation of the region, stemming mainly from the fact that more than one fifth of the Amazon Rainforest has already been destroyed and much more is threatened. Deforestation in the 1980s was considered catastrophic, yet in 1996, the Amazon was reported to have shown a 34 percent increase in deforestation since 1992. Recent US government reports suggest that the Amazon is vanishing at a rate of 52,000 square kilometres (20,000 miles) a year, over three times the rate for which the last official figures were reported, in 1994.

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DOCUMENTS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR


03/08/2012	Deforestation and Reforestation of Latin America and the Caribbean (2001–2010) Forest cover change directly affects biodiversity, the global carbon budget, and ecosystem function. ...	Biotropica, the Journal of Tropical Biology and Conservation (T. Mitchell Aide et al)
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28/01/2011	Agriculture Greenhouse Emissions in Latin America and the Caribbean The authors of this pilot study claim that farmers in Latin America and Caribbean will see billions in ...	Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
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NEWS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR


22/02/2013	Latin America’s forests – what lies ahead in 2013? Lima, Peru - In the past year, Latin America’s forests saw progress and setbacks that will shape ...	Center for International Forestry Research
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21/02/2013	Is China fueling the illegal timber trade? We hear plenty about drugs and conflict diamonds; but the international black market for timber -- a ...	Foreign Policy (blog)
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21/02/2013	Interpol Launches Crackdown On Global Timber Trafficking In Latin America Interpol says its recent arrest of nearly 200 people suspected of engaging in illegal logging and timber ...	International Business Times
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19/02/2013	International raid targets illegal timber trade Interpol has announced that it arrested nearly 200 people in a wide-ranging international operation against ...	BBC
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20/08/2012	Chart: Forest loss in Latin America Latin America lost nearly 260,000 square kilometers (100,000 square miles) of forest — an area ...	Mongabay.com
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19/06/2012	First satellite deforestation tracker for whole of Latin America developed An international team of researchers in Colombia, the UK, US and Switzerland have developed the first ...	redOrbit
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31/01/2011	Revenues, employment in Latin American tropical areas to decline due to deforestation ban Farmers in Latin America and Caribbean will see billions in lost revenue over the next two decades if ...	Hispanically Speaking News
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14/12/2010	New atlas maps future of the environment in Latin America and Caribbean From deforestation in Guatemala to the effects of mining in Colombia, a new atlas produced by the United ...	VAdvert.co.uk, UK
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EVENTS

DATE	TITLE


Monday 26th March 2012	Latina 2012: 2nd Latin America Forest Industry Conference The Forest Industry in Latin America grew rapidly over the past four decades as it developed its technological ...
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Monday 5th March 2012	27th Session of the Latin American and Caribbean Forestry Commission (LACFC) Based on national and regional priorities, the mandate of the LACFC is to advice FAO on the forestry ...
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