What role does the tropical rainforest play in Peru?

More than half of Peru's land area is covered by forests. This makes the country the fourth largest tropical rainforest in the world, after Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Indonesia. In 2018, 87% of this area was still virgin forest. The forests of the Amazon basin are the largest contiguous rainforests on Earth. This means that they are not only a huge CO2 reservoir, but also create their own weather – a unique water cycle that brings rain from the Atlantic Ocean up to 5,000 km westward across the continent. The only thing that maintains this water cycle is the enormous size of the contiguous rainforests. 

At the same time, the Amazon rainforests make an important contribution to cooling the environment and purifying the air of pollutants. Over thousands of years, these rainforests have also produced the oxygen in the atmosphere that is vital for us. In addition, the rainforests in the Madre de Dios region are considered the most species-rich place in the world! Due to the favorable climatic conditions and geological development, there are 10 times more reptiles and amphibians here than in Germany. About 10% of all bird species in the world can be observed there, and on one hectare of forest you can find about 400 tree species—more than in all of Europe north of the Alps!

Unfortunately, however, the forest is seriously endangered: between 2015 and 2020 according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) , with the Amazon region suffering the most damage each year. In 2020 alone, an area of primary forest the size of Israel – that's more than 22,000 km2.