The Amazon Rainforest makes up 25% of South America; it is so vast that it lies within 9 countries: Brazil, French Guyana, Suriname, Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. 62% is in Brazil alone, the other 38% is in the other 8 countries.
The Amazon covers over a billion acres of land; if it were a country, it would be the 9th largest in the world. The Amazon Rainforest has been described as the "lungs of our planet" because it provides the essential environmental world service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. More than 20% of the world's oxygen is produced in the Amazon. Rainforests now exist on only a small part of our planet. Many different types of people live in the Amazon. Natives are able to survive off the vegetation and game provided by the Rainforest. Originally Indians were the ones living there, but as time passed people immigrated and settled in the Amazon.
But soon we won't have the Amazon to enjoy, deforestation continues each day as people continue to destroy and cut down trees. Many animals are endangered species and if they aren't protected, they will be gone forever. There are still thousands of species that haven't even been discovered or described by science yet; we may lose them before we even know they existed in the first place.
At least 30% of all known plant and animal species are found in the Amazon, including one fifth of all bird species, 80 thousand plant species, and some 30 million insects. The Amazon Rainforest provides a home for animals such as harpy eagles, red howler monkeys, silky anteaters, two-toed sloths, toucans, emerald tree boas, scarlet macaws, giant otters, ocelots, macaws and jaguars.
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