The Amazon comprises the largest, most bio diverse tract of tropical rainforest in the world, with an estimated 390 billion individual trees divided into 16,000 species.

In 1989, environmentalist C.M. Peters demonstrated an economic and biological rationale for protecting the rainforest.

He determined that one hectare in the Peruvian Amazon has a calculated value of $6,820 of sustainably harvested fruits, latex, and timber.

A onetime clear cut produces only $1000 of timber and $148 of useable pasture for cattle.

Between 2002 and 2006, land conserved in the Amazon tripled with deforestation rates dropping 60%.

1,730,000 square kilometers have now been put into some form of conservation in the Amazon rain forests.