Seven keys to understand what is burning in the Amazo …

This virgin forest represents 25% of the South American territory, shared by eight countries. It has the largest freshwater reserves on the planet and is home to hundreds of thousands of species of plants, animals and insects. that of 34 million inhabitants and 420 native tribes with 86 different languages. 20% of this territory has already been razed by man.

Alarms have exploded around the world because of the environmental importance of what is considered the largest plant lung on the planet.

These are some of the keys to an ecological paradise that has been partly set on fire for obscure reasons, but linked to drought, climate emergency and man-made deforestation, although, according to Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro, extreme extreme. some NGOs could have caused disaster.

25% of the surface of America

Fires that devastate the Amazon rainforest, seen from space, captured by the GOES-16 geostationary meteorological satellite on August 21, 2019.

It is the largest tropical forest in the world and represents just over half of the world's rainforest, which, along with marine plants, is the key to oxygen generation.

It extends over 7.4 million square kilometers, which equates to 5% of the total land area of ​​the Earth and nearly 25% of the American continent. 60% of this territory is on Brazilian soil.

Eight countries and an agency inoperative in the face of crises

The Amazon is shared between Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela. These eight countries are members of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), an intergovernmental body created in 1995 on the basis of agreements signed in 1978.

Although it promotes various plans for cooperation and protection of the environment, ACTO has lost its vigor over the years and is ineffective in the face of crises such as those now triggered by fires. .

The largest freshwater reserves on the planet

Sunlight is overlooking the lake of the Samuel Hydroelectric Dam in an area of ​​the Amazon Rainforest near Porto Velho, State of Rondonia, Brazil, Brazil, August 21, 2019.

The region conserves nearly 20% of the world's fresh water reserves, a resource that, according to the UN, could be at the origin of "wars" in the 21st century. According to Unesco, the planet could record a water deficit of 40% in 2030 if the current model of consumption and preservation does not change.

Part of this wealth is found in the Amazon, declared in 2011 as one of the "natural wonders" of the planet, the largest and longest in the world, born in the Peruvian Andes and flows into the ocean Atlantic after a journey of 7,000 kilometers It rejects 220,000 cubic meters per second and carries more water than the Missouri-Mississippi, Nile and Yangtze rivers combined. Its hydrological cycle feeds a complex system of aquifers and groundwater that can cover nearly four million square kilometers between Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, according to the ACTO.

However, many rivers in the area are contaminated. The ACTO estimates that over the past 50 years, about 1,300 tonnes of mercury, which Bolsonaro intends to regularize, have been dumped into illegal mining on the river. Amazon and its tributaries.

A unique biodiversity on the planet

Adult Jaguar at the top of a tree in the Mamiraua Sustainable Development Reserve in Uarini, in the state of Amazonas.

The Amazon biome contains about 30,000 species of vascular plants, many of which have enormous nutritional and medicinal qualities. According to the ACTO, it is also home to 2.5 million species of insects, 2,500 species of fish, more than 1,500 species of birds, 550 species of reptiles and 500 species of mammals.

34 million inhabitants

Archive photograph dated April 10, 2018 showing native Huitotos during a ritual in Leticia, Colombia.

The Amazon is a virtually depopulated region, but there are still 34 million inhabitants, 60% of whom are concentrated in urban centers, such as the Brazilian city of Manaus, which has two million inhabitants.

420 indigenous tribes and 86 languages

According to ACTO data, about three million natives live in the Amazon, spread across 420 tribes speaking 86 languages ​​and 650 dialects.

In Brazil, indigenous peoples occupy 600 reserves totaling 109.6 million hectares, or 13% of the national territory.

The Bolsonaro government has declared that it would not create new indigenous lands, which mainly constitute environmental reserves and whose inhabitants have denounced the feeling of being threatened by the policies of the leader of the far right .

More than 20% destroyed by the action of the human

A logging operation in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil.

According to calculations of environmental organizations, about 20% of the Amazon would have been destroyed in the last 50 years by the predatory action of humans, who would have crossed the jungle to extend its agricultural frontiers or exploit its mineral wealth.

In Brazil, this process has accelerated since Bolsonaro came to power, determined to open the Amazon to private companies in the mining, agriculture and tourism sectors, among others.

Public Special, from Spain, for page I12.