What is the world’s largest tropical rainforest, covering much of northern South America?

The Amazon Rainforest is the world’s largest tropical rainforest, covering much of northern South America.

It extends across Brazil and several neighboring countries, including Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. Most of the forest lies within the Amazon Basin, whose rivers and seasonal floods strongly shape the ecosystem.

The terms “Amazon Rainforest” and “Amazon Basin” are related but not identical. The rainforest is the forested region; the basin is the much larger drainage area whose waters flow toward the Amazon River system. The Amazon is also different from the Congo Rainforest, the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest.

Its scale makes it globally important for biodiversity, regional rainfall, carbon storage, and Indigenous cultures. However, it is not one uniform forest: it includes floodplain forests, upland forests, seasonally dry areas, rivers, wetlands, and human-influenced landscapes.