Brazil contains the world's largest tropical rainforest, the Amazon rainforest. About 60 percent of the Amazon rainforest lies within Brazil, although the wider forest also extends into several other South American countries.
The Amazon basin is drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries and contains extraordinary biological diversity. It includes millions of hectares of forest, extensive wetlands, and thousands of plant and animal species. Indigenous peoples have lived throughout the region for thousands of years, using and managing its environments in diverse ways.
The rainforest is often called the “lungs of the Earth,” but that phrase can be misleading because mature forests also consume oxygen through respiration and decomposition. The Amazon strongly influences regional rainfall and stores large quantities of carbon in vegetation and soils. Deforestation, fires, roads, mining, and agricultural expansion have changed parts of the forest, while protected areas and Indigenous territories conserve substantial regions.