There exists several calculations with regards to the total surface area of the Amazon; nevertheless, in general terms the geographic extension of the basin surpasses seven million square kilometers. Due to its immense size, the Amazon Basin is considered to be the largest found on this planet. (TCA / SPT Publicación No. 33: "Inventario de Proyectos y Presencia Institucional en la Región Amazónica Colombiana". Lima, Perú (1995, 136p)

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Total Amazonian Surface Area by country

Distribution of the Amazon Basin by country*

Source: Elaborated by the ALDHU based on the Treaty on Amazonian Cooperation (Tratado de Cooperación Amazónica). Information from CADMA, BID-PNUD. Amazon without myths (Amazonía sin mitos).
1993. *Does not include the Amazon domain in Suriname and the Frech Guayana which correspond to 142.800 y 91.000 km2 respectively.

In Brazil alone, over 1,000 indigenous tribes have disappeared forever. Now, recently, one begins to understand that the profound knowledge held by the complex environment, its cultures, life-forms, are essential to this planet, hence these tribes are "living ancestors".

In Peru, which holds 13% of the basin, 74% of the nations territory is part of the Amazon Basin; in Bolivia 75% of its territory is Amazonian and Ecuador, with only 1.67% of the basin, possesses 51% of the country is Amazonian.

Population Process

For a long time, the Amazon was considered a vast empty space; nevertheless, many studies conclude that this region has been populated for millennia. One hypothesis, each time more accepted, says that during the period between 3.000 - 1.000 B.C., Colombia, Ecuador and the Upper Amazon River constituted the most highly developed region on the continent.

In agreement with the archaeological investigations, the origin of the most highly advanced cultures are found in the Northeastern region of South America, Colombia, and Ecuador. The intensive agriculture, along with the 10 to 50 thousand inhabitants, developed principally in the Amazon Rainforest, especially along the riverbanks of the Amazon River and its main tributaries. These cultures were the base of Peruvian and Mesoamerican cultures (SOUZA, Marcio. Breve historia da Amazonía (Brief History of the Amazon), Marco Zero, Sao Paulo, Brasil, 1994).

The Amazonian population process has been heterogeneous: the indigenous cultures have adapted themselves to the ecosystem, their habits and customs have been tightly related to the dynamics of the natural environment.

The intensity and dynamics of the colonization have been arduous, shown in differing historic moments, and in the economic dynamics of these countries and the world. The Amazon has been socially and historically reconfigured since the evangelization, that motivated the creation of stable establishments, moving on to extraction of rubber, animal skins, exploitation of petroleum and mining, then recently the bonanza of coca production and the creation of cities.

Today, more than 21 million people live in the Amazon Basin, one million representing the indigenous communities that struggle for the preservation of their territories and culture.

Population Distribution in the Amazon Basin 1993

Source: Elaborated by the ALDHU based on the Treaty on Amazonian Cooperation (Tratado de Cooperación Amazónica). Information from CADMA,BID-PNUD. Amazon without myths(Amazonía sin mitos). 1993

The Richness of the Amazon

The Amazon is known for its richness in diverse natural resources: gold, petroleum, precious hardwoods, rubber, vegetation and fauna. For economic purposes, the region suffered a large extraction of its resources; which has unleashed the deterioration of soils and in some extreme cases, the extinction of species. This stirred debate in favor of the sustainability of the planet which has placed a heavy emphasis on the necessity to find alternative management and sustainability plans for the natural resources of the Amazon. If not, the Amazon Basin is no longer considered an ecosystem isolated from the processes of deforestation, degradation and pollution. On the other hand, the planetary equilibrium is dependent upon the stability of forests, the water cycle and the preservation of the cultures that inhabit the basin.

Biodiversity

The Amazonian flora and fauna (macro and micro), is 85% intact today. The total deforestation of the great basin, does not yet reach 15% - Worldwatch Institute (1990), World Resources Institute (1990). In addition, it is considered that approximately half of the area that was once deforested is now covered by the flourishing secondary forest (purmas), which is considered a magnified expression of the Amazonian biodiversity which includes native species and ecotypes that represent a point in the successive ecological process and not Virgen Forest. (Seminary- Workshop on Amazonian Biodiversity and Sustainable Development in the Economic Market, October 11-15, 1994; editor: José M. Toledo, Peru). The diversity of the basin is associated with the existence of the tropical rainforests. Five of the ten countries with the largest quantity of tropical forests in the world are found in the Amazon region.

The Amazon Basin constitutes the most important biotic reserve that exists in the world. The environmental richness formed by a number of unique ecosystems that interact, establish a complex ecological process that from a dynamic point of view are interdependent.

Two thirds of all tropical rainforests that exists on this planet, are part of the Amazonian Region. Close to 70% of the humid tropical forests are found in the Amazon.

Between 60 and 80% of all species found on earth are in 8 to 10 countries, those who are designated the "territories of megadiversity", of which four are found in the Amazon Basin: Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru (Mittermeier, 1988).

Although the Amazon is considered to be a grand homogenous jungle, in it exists a great diversity of forests represented as: humid low-land forest, humid upland forest, mixed and transitional forest; complex scrub forest, seasonal savannah and dry forest near Chaco. As well, there also exists alluvial forest such as the mangroves, dry plain savannah; varzeas; the complex herbaceous marsh with palm forests, white sand scrub forest with open canopy (caatingas), that enter into the lower plains of the Basin (Rojas y Castaño 1990).

The Amazon is the largest photosynthetic reserve and the best genetic bank that is found on the planet. There you may find the largest quantity of live material per unit of surface area on earth. While in temperate forest one may find 60 to 140 tons of live material per hectare, the Amazon registers between 160 and 150 tons per hectare.

The diversity of the Amazon Rainforest may reach between 150 and 312 tree species per hectare (Bustamante, 1988; Castaño, 1990; Gentry, 1990).

The bird species of the Amazon surpass a fifth of all avifauna that exists on earth. More than 2,000 fish species, (TCA, 1992), which means the there are 8 times what is existent in part of Europe and part of Asia. At least 65,000 species of vascular plants, although the present inventories identify only 52,000 of them (UICN, 1990; Landázuri, 1987; Bustamante, 1988).

A large part of the enormous biotic diversity that exist in the Amazon Basin is endemic. In addition to this fact the region is considered on of the most important in speciation of the Neotropics. Nevertheless the only prudent strategy of conservation of this biological diversity is to conserve the genetic diversity and the ecosystem that support them.

Today, this biological diversity is responsible for a large part of the domestic well being in over one hundred thousand households in the world. Thanks to the tropical rainforests of South and Central America, habitual items such as rubber, cocoa based food products (chocolate), varieties of fruits, pharmaceutical remedies, construction materials and insecticides all originate in the Amazonian plants and herbs.

The biological and anthropological diversity (ancestral knowledge of plant and animal use) offer an immense potential to bring new products to the market (medicines, roots and tubers, fruits and meats, oleaginous products, pigments, herbs, fibers and wood), today unknown outside of the Amazonian environment. The potential development demand a decision to invest in investigations and promotion of the uses, consumption and market demand.

Hydraulic offerings

The Amazon River is one of the most important sources of fresh water for the planet. It discharges more than 220.000 m_/second into the Atlantic Ocean, representing a sixth of the planetary total of freshwater.

The Basin contains between 15 and 20 percent of the planets fresh water supply making it one of the most important reserves in the world.

The hydraulic balance of the Amazon depends on, for the most part the forest canopy of the basin. The destruction of the Amazonian forests therefore generate a internal imbalance of the water cycle, diminishing the global contribution of atmospheric water in the peripheral zones.

Up to 75% of the precipitation of the basin returns to the atmosphere, in form of water vapor by means of plant evaporation and transpiration. (SaJati,1985). At some point along the basin, close to 50% of the water that enters the system as vapor proceed directly from the Atlantic Ocean, taken by the trade winds that blow all year from the east. The remaining 50 percent comes from the evapotranspiration of the region. (Salati et al., 1990).

With respect to the rivers, there exists three types of rivers in the basin with differing physiochemical and biological characteristics: white, black and clear or crystalline rivers (Sioli, 1984).

The rivers with white water originate in the Andes, which is why they carry a large quantity of Andean sediments. These waters are the richest in nutrients as well as in hydro biological resources. The black water rivers contain very little sediment, are acidic (with a pH below 4) and poor in electrolytes.

The dark color comes from the presence of humic and fulvic acids due to the incomplete decomposition of organic material. They originate in the archaic massifs and tertiary sediment zones. During its high season, the surrounding zones are flooded creating the flood habitat called "igapó".

The clear water rivers are generally transparent or greenish, transporting little sediment and can vary considerable in there physiochemical characteristics, with a pH between 4 and 7, according to there geological substrate.

The Amazonian lakes can also be found. They are found in tens of miles. In general, they originate from the shoulders of the rivers, offering important variations in the physiochemical composition of the water, generally related to the rivers of which they are formed (Forsberg etal., 1988).

Deforestation and Extensive Land Use of the Forest

The annual deforestation rate of primary tropical forests all over the world is calculated to be 250,000 km. That is to say that 2.3% of the forests surface area is deforested annually (Schilchter1988).

The deforestation of the Amazon Basin is calculated to be between 18,000 and 26,000 km per year. In all of the basin, close to 800,000 km have been deforested (TCA-BID- PNUD, 1992), with all of the environmental impacts that come with the destruction.

The factors of deforestation are principally associated with human intervention. The colonization, exploitation of petroleum, intensive extraction of mineral resources, vegetation and fauna, are the responsible causes of the loss of Amazonian forests. Cattle ranching and agricultural activity affect the Amazonian soil, whose production potential is then limited.

The extraction of hardwoods for commercial ends has duplicated in Latin America and at the same tome, the exportation has multiplied 14 times in the lapse of 25 years. This type of occupation carries out a rhythm of more that 50,000 km deforested per year (Schilchter, 1988).

Today, it is calculated that the 68% of the surface area deforested in the Amazon Basin is for cattle ranching purposes.

In addition, the Amazon has carried out agricultural activities that deteriorate the soil capacity. Only 3% of the Amazon Basin has soil suitable for agricultural vocation. The agriculture carried out is principally in the riverbanks, due to the greater accessibility to nutrients, nevertheless these activities have gradually expanded over the forest areas of the tierra firme.

Many of the agricultural and livestock projects of the Basin were introduced by the government as a development option. The crops are for the most part are commercially eminent, those such as coffee, African palm, the lulo or naranjilla, rice, cocoa and rubber. Amongst the subsistence crops are manioc, corn, plantain and papaya. This generation of propositions for the sustainable use of the Amazon Basin are recent and lack the long road needed to be covered in order to assure the preservation of the fragile Amazonian ecosystems.

The sustainable use of Amazonian resources constitutes, without a doubt, one of the primary challenges for the countries within the Basin and for the planet. For this reason the environmental services can convert themselves into a regional option, when and always the traditional knowledge is used as a fundamental link to achieve sustainability in the Amazon Basin.