Amazon Rainforest Day, first celebrated in 2008, aims to raise awareness about the importance of Earth’s largest rainforest. There is a place where the Amazon meets the Andes, where forests climb the lower slopes of mountains before giving way to the mists of the cloud forests. To stand there is to feel the weight of two great worlds converging. The immensity of the Amazon basin stretches out below, while above, the Andes rise in sheer defiance. In this meeting ground—across Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia—life has found its richest expression. The numbers alone are striking. Thousands of plant species, brilliantly patterned insects, frogs still unknown to science, and birds found nowhere else share this space. Walking a trail here, the experience is rarely showy but always layered: Pause by a tree trunk and you begin to notice camouflaged insects, tiny lizards, mosses, and fungi — life quietly going about its business. The air is thick with humidity and the earthy scent of wet soil and leaves. Every walk brings some small surprise, a reminder of the forest’s endless variety and its habit of revealing itself differently each time. Yet the wonder of these forests is matched by their vulnerability. Chainsaws bite into their edges, opening scars that spread like cracks in a mirror. Roads carve corridors into once-intact landscapes. Climate change shifts rainfall and temperature in ways that stress species finely tuned to their niches. Scientists warn that even small disruptions here can ripple widely, unraveling the delicate balance that…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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