Business Opportunities In The Amazon Rain Forest

The Amazon is a giant rain forest in Central and South America. This you know for sure, but did you know this forest is actually shared by many countries, namely Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru and Venezuela? The fantastic city of Manaus, in the middle of the Amazon, is a true representative of that entire world—the capital of the state of Amazonas in Brazil is a pole of economic development in the heart of the rain forest, a living statement of its contradictions and potentialities.

And there is more, almost 25 million people live just in the Brazilian part (I don't want to use the word "cut" here for obvious reasons) of the Amazon. Clearly, there is the need is to preserve versus the need to grow and sustain. Just as you do—I really hope you do—all people living there want to live a good life, have food, access to facilities, good education and so on. In Brazil, the states of Acre, Amapa, Amazonas, Maranhao, Mato Grosso, Para, Rondonia, Roraima and Tocantins all together contain within their boundaries the forest. They represent about 60 percent of the Brazilian territory—some 5 million square kilometers.

With just a glance at a map, you will see that Brazil has more of the Amazon in its territory than any of the other countries. So it does have more responsibility and more problems to deal with. For it is not only in Brazil that you have locals and foreign people from all over the world trying to find fortune in the forest one way or another. Locals will sell, cut, burn—you name it—just to live. These people are actually the biggest victims of the system.