Background Information and Facts

*Between 1985 and 1995, the Amazon rainforest lost well over two million acres of land each
  year.
*In 1996, only seventy percent of the Amazon's original rainforest remained and only seven
  percent of this is protected from development.
*The Amazon Basin includes parts of Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana,
  Guyana, Peru, Surinam, and Venezuela.
*Since 1978 the Brazilian part of the Amazon alone has shrunk by over 100 million acres.  This
  is more than ten percent of the original forest(1).
 

Why should we save the Amazon?
*It is the largest tropical rainforest in the world.
*It contains several millions species of insects, plants, and animals.
*There are over two thousand documented endangered animals and plants, with many species
  still not determined(2).
*It is home to seventy percent of all plants identified as having anti-cancer properties by the
  National Cancer Institute(3).
*Animals usually cannot move on when their habitat is removed.  Ex: If a fig tree is cut down,
  and there are no fig trees of the wasp's species nearby, the wasp dies(4).

Internationally
*The Brazilian constitution guarantees native people the land that they occupy with the
  exclusive use of all of its natural resources.  Yet, "over half of the tribes haven't even had their
  territory recognized or delineated, yet development and occupation are already taking place in
  their lands(5).
*All of the offenses that were performed against North American Indians by Europeans are being
  practiced against the native tribes of the rainforests.
*Pattern of offering gifts, introducing diseases, cultural "genocide" and ignoring land claims
  continues today in the Amazon(6).

Here are some links:
Amazon River Basin
Amazon Conservation Team
Live From the Rainforest
Journey to Amazonia

1.  Norman Myers, The Primary Source, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1984, 29.

2.  Ibid, 38.

3.  Lois Warburton, Rainforests, San Diego: Lucent, 1991: 19.

4.  Myers, 31.

5.  David Suzuki, "The Rape of the Amazon," Inventing the Future, Toronto: Stoddart, 1989:
     136.

6.  Ibid, 145.