Earth’s greatest container of wildlife, the Amazon Rainforest stretches across eight country borders and is larger than the forests of the Congo and New Guinea combined. The Amazon Rainforest contains one-fifth of all the world’s freshwater, covers 40% of the South American continent, produces over 20% of the world’s oxygen, and is home to one-tenth of the world’s species. There are more species of fish in the Amazon River than in the entire Atlantic Ocean.
The Amazon River, running as the vein of life through the wilderness, is the planet’s most voluminous and second longest after the Nile. Once flowing in the opposite direction, the Amazon could have linked to the Congo River in Africa when the continents were joined on Gondwanaland. The force of water exiting the Amazon is so high it stretches 125 miles out to sea. This enabled early sailors to drink freshwater from the ocean before sighting the South American continent.

At current rates of deforestation, estimates predict 55% of the Amazon Rainforest could be gone by the year 2030. This is not simply a local concern, as scientists have linked the Amazon Rainforest with the state of the global environment as a whole. To visit the Amazon Rainforest, you can join one of our wildlife tours.