AMAZONIA-2020-Fires

Fire Season Includes Many Intentional Burns in Brazil 

Shocking Disappearance of Ecuador's Tallest Waterfall

AMAZONIA-2019-ClimateChange

“O Tempo do Clima” (The Time of Climate) 

Jair Bolsonaro Pledges to Develop Amazon 

AMAZONIA-2019-WomensMarch

Indigenous Women's March on Brasília

AMAZONIA-2011-BeloMonte

Construction Begins on the Belo Monte Dam

AMAZONIA-2010-GoldMining

Gold Mining Pollution in the Tapajós Valley

AMAZONIA-2005-SisterDot

Dorothy Stang Murdered

AMAZONIA-2003-ARPA

ARPA Establishes Conservation Infrastructure in Brazil

AMAZONIA-2003-Maggi

"Deforestation Doesn’t Mean Anything at All" 

hist-5301-photo-Central Amazon Conservation Complex Created

Central Amazon Conservation Complex

AMAZONIA-2000

"Avança Brasil Created"

The Pongo de Mainique, Headwater of the Amazon

AMAZONIA-1996-Saramaka

Saramaka Maroons Win Legal Protection of Ancestral Lands

AMAZONIA-1989-BalbinaDam

Balbina Dam

AMAZONIA-1989-Xingu

"Indigenous Peoples of the Xingu Protest Construction of Dams"

AMAZONIA-1989-Xingu-2

“We need our rivers”

AMAZONIA-1988

Chico Mendes

Satellites Observe Amazon Burning

AMAZONIA-1990

Satellite Photography Draws Attention to Deforestation

AMAZONIA-1984-TucuruiDam

Tucuruí Dam Reservoir Filled

AMAZONIA-1984

The False Fertility of Amazonian Soil

AMAZONIA-1982

Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve Established

AMAZONIA-1982-GasFieldsPeru

Shell Oil Discovers South America’s Largest Gas Field

AMAZONIA-1981

The River's Reminder: “This World is Still Being Formed”

Jaguar Sun

AMAZONIA-1980-GoldMining

Gold Rush Begins

AMAZONIA-1980s-ChevronTexaco

Texaco Oil Pollution

AMAZONIA-1980s-CattleRanching

Ranching in the Amazon Proves Disastrous

“The Decade of  Destruction”

AMAZONIA-1974-PeruHunting

Peru Hunting Laws Enacted

AMAZONIA-1972

Trans Ecuadorian Oil Pipeline Opens

AMAZONIA-1970-TransAmazonian

Trans-Amazonian Highway Built

AMAZONIA-1971

Conquest of Amazonia

BR-163 Highway

AMAZONIA-1967-Carajas

Carajás Mineral Deposit Discovered

AMAZONIA-1965-BelemBrasiliaHighway

Belém-Brasília Highway Completed

AMAZONIA-1964-Brokopondo

First Dam Built Without Prior Forest Clearing

AMAZONIA-1960-Development

Nationalism Drives Development of Amazon

AMAZONIA-1960

How to Possess the Amazon

AMAZONIA-1955-Araguaia

Araguaia National Park Established

AMAZONIA-1955-LeviStrauss

“the Forest Universe”

AMAZONIA-1951-DamBuilding

Dam Building Spree Begins 

AMAZONIA-1950-CattleRanching

Forests are Converted for Cattle Ranching

AMAZONIA-1944-AfterTheRain

In the Jungle after a Rain

AMAZONIA-1942

The Marañon River, Principal Source of the Amazon

AMAZONIA-1940

Pirarucu Fished to Commercial Extinction

AMAZONIA-1930s-Jute

Floodplain Jute Boom

AMAZONIA-1930s-OrinocoCrocodile

Orinoco Crocodile Hunted to Near Extinction

AMAZONIA-1930-Life

“The Most Complex Expression of Life”

AMAZONIA-1926-ficus

Ficus Trees Begin Life as Parasitic Vines

AMAZONIA-1918-Protest

Poetic Protest of Rubber Trade 

AMAZONIA-1917

Venezuelan Law Restricts Feather Collection

AMAZONIA-1913-Roosevelt

Teddy Roosevelt Shoots Black Caymans

AMAZONIA-1902-Igapo

Igapó: Blackwater Flooding Limits Control of Environment

AMAZONIA-1899-pioneers

Legions of Pioneers

AMAZONIA-1879-rubber-boom

Rubber Boom in the Amazon Valley

AMAZONIA-1865

The Future of the Amazon

AMAZONIA-1848

“This Uproar of Life”

AMAZONIA-1840-steamships

Steamships Introduced

AMAZONIA-1800-Humboldt

Alexander Von Humboldt Travels the Orinoco

AMAZONIA-1785

Colonizers See Prosperous Future in the Amazon

AMAZONIA-1743

Two Marvels from the Amazon

A Great River of Treasures

AMAZONIA-1596

Guyana, “the Most Beautiful Countrie”

AMAZONIA-1550-Brazilwood

Brazilwood: First Major Commerce in South America

AMAZONIA-1545-Potosi

Silver Veins Discovered in Potosí

AMAZONIA-1542

Europeans Find Food Stores to Feed a Thousand

AMAZONIA-1500

Compost and Charcoal In Amazonian Soils

AMAZONIA-400-AmazonAgriculture

Beginning of the Amazonian Anthropocene

Americas, South America, Amazonia

Tropical Rainforest

With an area of between ​​5.5 and 6.2 million square kilometers, the Amazon is the largest rainforest in the world. It comprises a great variety of unique moist, broadleaf forests, including a portion of its southwest dominated by bamboo.

Riverine Systems

The Amazon river basin is the largest watershed in the world. It drains over 35 percent of the South American continent via 1,100 tributaries and a main river that extends for over 6,400 km (4,000 mi). A diversity of riverine biomes provide habitat for about 2,500 species of fish (not including an estimated 1,000 species not yet catalogued) and a unique array of mammalian species including the giant otter and the Amazon river dolphin. 

Floodplain Forests

About 3-4% of the Amazon rainforest is routinely inundated by river floods up to 50 feet (12 to 15 metres) above low river, making a unique section of the forest which has much richer soils than the surrounding forest. Because these floodplain forests receive rich sediment from the Andes Mountains, they host an overall higher number of species along with unique niche ecosystems.

Savanna 

Located alongside and to the south of the rainforest, the Brazilian “cerrado” or tropical savanna is itself an enormous ecosystem with over 4,800 endemic species. While greater attention has gone to the loss of rainforest, the Cerrado is also threatened by unsustainable agriculture and cattle ranching. Its fate is tied to that of the rainforest, as halting development the forest has often come at the expense of agribusiness degrading the Cerrado.  

Key Habitats

River Damming

Over 100 hydropower dams have been built in the Amazon basin to date, most notably the recent Belo Monte Dam—the world’s fourth-largest hydroelectric project—which now blocks the 1,000-mile Xingu River, a major tributary of the Amazon. Existing and proposed dams have the potential to trigger enormous hydrophysical and biotic disturbances in the region affecting the Amazon basin’s floodplains, estuary and sediment plume.

Deforestation

Over the last 50 years, the seemingly infinite Amazon forest has lost at least 17% of its forest cover. Deforestation on a large scale began in the 20th century, driven by industry, plantation agriculture, and ranching. Although conservation measures have since protected parts of the forest, deforestation (driven today by cattle ranching more than any other factor) fells thousands of acres per year.  

Savannization

While the Cerrado itself suffers from destruction by agribusiness and other extractive economic activities, 40% of the Amazon rainforest is at risk of permanent transition into savannah. 

Water Pollution

Water pollution is worsening in the Amazon as a result of extensive logging in the rainforest and the introduction of massive livestock operations. Mercury pollution from mining is also threatening wildlife including fish that are critical to the food security of indigenous, rural and urban communities. 

Most Pressing Issues

Amazonia