Amazon Academy 2.67

Amazon Academy facilitates science exploration, sustainable solutions and conservation.

We take volunteers to the front-lines of conservation in the Peruvian Amazon, to work alongside researchers, conservationists and sustainable business experts. www.ConserveTheAmazon.org.

Representing over half of the planet’s remaining rainforests and stretching across nine South American nations, the Amazon has unparalleled biodiversity—up to a third of all species in the world.

Each year, billions of trees in the Peruvian Amazon are destroyed because of unsustainable practices. Between 1991 and 2000, the total area of forest lost in the Amazon rose from 415,000 to 587,000 square kilometres (160,000 to 227,000 sq mi), with most of the lost forest becoming pasture for cattle.

The Amazon covers almost 40% of the South American continent and consists of a number of different ecosystems, from swamp to savanna.

The Amazon River discharges 210,000 cubic meters of water per second into the Atlantic ocean--enough water from one day to supply New York for 9 years. The volume of water the river carries is more than the next seven largest rivers combined.

The Amazon is home to nearly 30 million people. While most of the 350 ethnic groups live in cities, there are a large number indigenous tribes living remotely in the forest. The Amazon is the only place on earth where humans still live completely disconnected from civilization, unaware of the world as we know it today.

Imagine a place that homes 2.5 million insect species, tens of thousands of plants, and some 2,000 birds and mammals. To date, at least 40,000 plant species, 2,200 fishes, 1,294 birds, 427 mammals, 428 amphibians, and 378 reptiles have been scientifically classified in the Amazon.

One hectare of the Peruvian Amazon has been calculated to have a value of $6,820 if intact forest is sustainably harvested for fruits, latex, and timber; $1,000 if clear-cut for commercial timber (not sustainably harvested); or $148 if used as cattle pasture.