The Amazon Rainforest is one of the most diverse places in the world. The forest is home to over one third of the world's known species, roughly one out of ten known species live in the forest, as well as that the rainforest makes up half of the worlds rainforest, with a expanse covering about 5,500,000 square kilometres, occupying 60% of Brazil as seen in the map on the bottom right. It is for this reason will be focusing on the Brazilian forest, due to how much of it is subjected to Brazilian law.
Today, large portions of rainforests have been turned into cattle ranches and soybean farms, this change has mainly occurred due to the construction of roads across the rainforest, with over 70% of deforestation occurring within 50km of roads, these roads have allowed humans easier access into the deeper parts of the forest, allowing them access to timber as well as allowing to better establish large scale cattle ranches and soybean farms.
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