Geography of South America world by drainage area—the Amazon River and the more southerly Paraná River. The other major river of this central lowland is the Orinoco River, which has a natural channel linking it with the Amazon. Most of this central lowland is sparsely populated because the soils are heavily leached, but in the south is the very fertile pampas of Argentina—one of the world's major food-producing regions where wheat and beef cattle are pre-eminent. The natural vegetation of the northern lowlands are either savanna in the northern "llanos" and southern "campos", or tropical rainforest throughout most of the Amazon basin. Efforts to
Union of South American Nations experience different levels of privations arriving, in extreme cases, to the absolute poverty. However, it is necessary to emphasize that poverty in South America has been reduced in a surprising way, especially in the Southern Cone and North of South America. Today, thanks to the development of many South American nations, it has allowed the world, their eyes on some governments, even forming part of economic blocs like G20 and BRICS. Although this reality is common to the entire South American group, the countries of the so-called Southern Cone (Argentina, southern Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay) present more positive socioeconomic data