When you picture the Amazon, you might imagine a vast, unbroken sea of green stretching as far as the eye can see. This incredible place is often called the “lungs of the planet,” but have you ever wondered exactly where on the map you can find it? Its location is a key part of what makes this rainforest so unique and vital to our world’s health.
The Countries That Share the Amazon Basin
The Amazon Forest isn’t contained within a single country. Instead, it sprawls across the massive Amazon River Basin in South America. The majority of the rainforest, about 60%, is located within Brazil. The rest is shared by eight other nations: Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. This international footprint makes its conservation a global effort.
A Continent Defined by Green
To get a better sense of its scale, imagine looking at a map of South America. The Amazon Rainforest dominates the northern part of the continent. It stretches from the eastern slopes of the mighty Andes Mountains in the west all the way to the Atlantic Ocean in the east. This creates a massive green corridor that influences weather patterns and houses an astonishing amount of the world’s biodiversity right in the heart of South America.
More Than Just a Location on a Map
Knowing where the Amazon is helps us appreciate its role in our global climate. Its location along the equator gives it a hot and humid tropical climate year-round, which is perfect for the explosive growth of plants and trees. These trees act as a giant carbon sink, absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The rainforest’s sheer size and specific location are what allow it to function as a critical regulator for the Earth’s atmosphere.
So, the next time you hear about the Amazon, you can picture its home across nine South American nations, a testament to both its grandeur and its shared global responsibility.
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