Amazon basin Amazon basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or roughly 40 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela. Most of the basin is covered by the Amazon Rainforest, also known as Amazonia. With a area of dense tropical forest, this is the largest rainforest in the world. The Amazon River rises in the Andes Mountains at the west of the basin with its main
Selective logging in the Amazon rainforest from initially low volume harvests of floodplains to much higher rates that remove around 25 million m3 of wood from the forest each year. The ecological, social, and economic impacts drive a better understanding of efficient forest management techniques. Logging in the Brazilian Amazon started when settlers came from Europe in the 17th century. Until the 1950s, logging was only allowed in floodplains around the main rivers and only in small portions. This changed as industrial mills started to populate the Amazon to produce sawn wood and veneer. These mills gained access to other areas of the Amazon through new