The Amazon is the largest forest in the world, covering around 60% of Brazilian territory. It represents two thirds of the world’s tropical rainforest, around three and a half million squared kilometres of which is exclusively Brazilian. Amazon state alone is sufficiently extensive to equal all of territorial Europe, by size!The rainforest ecosystems extend to the west in Bolívia, Colômbia, Equador, Peru and to the north in Guyana, Guyana Francês, Surinam, Venezuela and some Caribbean islands while in Brazil, there are seven states each with their own part of the Amazon tropical rainforest.
Within a large store room in the Department of Entomology at INPA (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas de Amazônia) there is a vast classified collection. It is there where it is possible to get an idea of the complexity and the incredible diversity of Amazonian ecosystems. There are 30 million insect species on the planet. A third of those are in the Amazon indicating just how fantastic this forest’s biodiversity is and the importance of it in relation to the planet.
Researchers have already identified the genus and species nomenclature of around 30 thousand plants while estimating there are probably between 5 and 30 million different vegetation species. There are flowers, like the famed vitória-regia with 1.8 metres diameter. There are leaves larger than a regular door, like the Poligonácea coccolaba, which can be measured at an average of 2.5 metres in length and a metre in width. In an Amazon forest hectare it is possible to make an inventory of over 400 vegetation species.
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