The Amazon Basin

     Tropical Rain Forests can be found along the Earth's Equatorial zone, between the tropics of Capricorn and Cancer, where rainfall is abundant year-round.

     The biodiversity, the Earth's abundance of life forms, wether plants, animals or micro-organisms of tropical rain forests is greater than that of any other type of ecosystem.

     The Amazon River Basin drains a territory of more then 6 million sq. km (2.3 million sq. miles) belonging to Brazil and Venezuela. The Amazon Rainforest remains one of the last and least known earthly secrets.

To put the sheer size of the Amazon in its proper perspective, it is worth noting that within the area occupied by the Amazon, you could put Portugal, Spain, France, Italy --- including Sardinia and Corsica --- Germany, Holland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, as well as the United Kingdom and Southern Ireland, and still have room to spare!