Brazil

Products of Brazil

Whereas every country in the world has its own unique gift from mother nature, Brazil is one of the few that can confidently boast its ability to satisfy practically any whim when it comes to natural attractions. From vast deserts to fertile rainforests to exotic wetlands to imposing plateaus riddled with underground caves, Brazil is a true wonderland that’s ripe for exploring. Some, such as the Amazon and the Pantanal, are well-known, while others like Ilha de Marajó and Mount Roraima are bonafide hidden gems. To get your nature fix, check out these outstanding natural spectacles in Brazil.

The Amazon rainforest, covering much of northwestern Brazil and extending into Colombia, Peru and other South American countries, is the world’s largest tropical rainforest, famed for its biodiversity. It’s crisscrossed by thousands of rivers, including the powerful Amazon. River towns, with 19th-century architecture from rubber-boom days, include Brazil’s Manaus and Belém and Peru’s Iquitos and Puerto Maldonado

Most people understand that the Amazon is Earth’s largest rainforest, but here are ten other facts you should know about the Amazon. 

  1. The Amazon is the world’s biggest rainforest, larger than the next two largest rainforests — in the Congo Basin and Indonesia — combined.
  2. At 6.9 million square kilometers (2.72 million square miles), the Amazon Basin is roughly the size of the forty-eight contiguous United States and covers some 40 percent of the South American continent. The “Amazon rainforest” — which defined biogeographically includes the rainforest in the Guianas, which technically are outside the Amazon Basin — covers 7.8-8.2 million square km (3-3.2 million square mi), of which just over 80 percent is forested.
  3. The Amazon River is by far the world’s largest river by volume, carrying more than five times the volume of the Congo or twelve times that of the Mississippi. It drains an area nearly the size of the forty-eight contiguous United States and has over 1,100 tributaries, 17 of which are longer than 1000 miles.
  4. The Amazon River once flowed west-ward instead of east-ward as it does today. The rise of the Andes caused it to flow into the Atlantic Ocean.
  5. The Amazon is estimated to have 16,000 tree species and 390 billion individual trees
  6. Nearly two-thirds of the Amazon rainforest is found in Brazil.
  7. The Amazon is thought to have 2.5 million species of insects. More than half the species in the Amazon rainforest are thought to live in the canopy.
  8. 70 percent of South America’s GDP is produced in areas that receive rainfall or water from the Amazon. The Amazon influences rainfall patterns as far away as the United States.
  9. Cattle ranching accounts for roughly 70 percent of deforestation in the Amazon.
  10. Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest was on a downward trend from 2004 to 2012, mostly due to the falling deforestation rate in Brazil. There are a variety of reasons for the decline, including macroeconomic trends, new protected areas and indigenous territories, improved law enforcement, deforestation monitoring via satellite, pressure from environmental groups, and private sector initiatives. But that trend has reversed since 2013.

View and Smell of Brazil