At least 1,200 new species have been discovered in the Amazon ecosystem, at an average rate of one every three days during the decade from 1999 through 2009, the global conservation organization WWF revealed in the report " Amazon Alive!: A Decade of Discoveries 1999-2009."
This is a greater number of species than the combined total of new species found over a similar 10-year period in other areas of high biological diversity - including Borneo, the Congo Basin and the Eastern Himalayas, WWF said in the report,
Presented to delegates from 193 countries at the UN Convention on Biodiversity in Nagoya, the WWF report details the discoveries of 39 mammals, 16 birds, 55 reptiles, 216 amphibians, 257 fish and 637 plants - all new to science.
The Amazon region encompasses the largest rainforest and river system on Earth. The region spans eight South American countries and one overseas territory, and is home to 30 million people. It consists of over 600 different types of terrestrial and freshwater habitats, from swamps to grasslands to montane and lowland forests. The Amazon is inhabited by 10 percent of the world's known species, including endemic and endangered plants and animals.
But during the last 50 years, humans have destroyed at least 17 percent of the Amazon rainforest - an area greater than the size of Venezuela, or twice the size of Spain. The rapid expansion of regional and global markets for meat, soy and biofuels has increased the demand for land; about 80 percent of deforested areas in the Amazon have become cattle pastures. More clearing has been done to meet energy demands.
The Amazon forests not only shelter the most outstanding diversity of life on Earth, but also store 90-140 billion tons of carbon. WWF warns that releasing even a portion of this carbon through further forest loss and land use change, would accelerate global warming, compromising life on Earth as we know it.