Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Maps and Figures
- List of Tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations and Acronyms
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Characteristics of the Amazon Region
- 3 The Origins of Regional Cooperation in the Amazon
- 4 The 1978 Amazon Cooperation Treaty
- 5 Regional and Subregional Organizations
- 6 Other Legal Instruments Adopted by the Amazon States Inter Se
- 7 Multilateral Treaties and Global Actors in the Amazon
- 8 Positive Incentives for Protecting the Amazon
- 9 The Legal Status of the Amazon
- 10 General Conclusions
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - The Characteristics of the Amazon Region
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 February 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Maps and Figures
- List of Tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations and Acronyms
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Characteristics of the Amazon Region
- 3 The Origins of Regional Cooperation in the Amazon
- 4 The 1978 Amazon Cooperation Treaty
- 5 Regional and Subregional Organizations
- 6 Other Legal Instruments Adopted by the Amazon States Inter Se
- 7 Multilateral Treaties and Global Actors in the Amazon
- 8 Positive Incentives for Protecting the Amazon
- 9 The Legal Status of the Amazon
- 10 General Conclusions
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Land Area
The Amazon is the name given to a vast region located in the northern portion of South America, drained by a vast network of rivers and their tributaries that discharge into the Atlantic at the mouth of the Amazon River. This region (also known as pan-Amazônia) is the planet's largest forest ecosystem and water basin.
The Amazon extends over eight South American countries: Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela (as well as French Guyana, an overseas department of France) with a total area of approximately 7.5 million square km. Of this total, Brazil owns 63 percent (or 4 million square km). The remaining 37 percent (2.4 million square km) are distributed among Peru (10 percent), Colombia (7 percent), Bolivia (6 percent), Venezuela (6 percent), Guyana (3 percent), Suriname (2 percent), Ecuador (1.5 percent), and French Guyana (1.5 percent). Including 7,408 km of Atlantic coastline, Brazil's borders extend for a total of 23,127 km and its land borders with the other seven Amazon countries extend 11,449 km (seeTable 2.1). The longest of these borders are with Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia. Ecuador is the only Amazon State with which Brazil does not share a land border.
In Brazil, Article 2 of Law 1806 of January 6, 1953, created the concept of the “Legal Amazon” (Amazônia Legal), an administrative unit encompassing various states (Acre, Amazonas, Amapá, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima and Tocantins, Mato Grosso, part of Maranhão, and some municipalities of Goiás).
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- The Amazon from an International Law Perspective , pp. 23 - 49Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011
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