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Why?

The Amazon represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforests and comprises of the largest and most species-rich tract of tropical rainforest in the world.

It helps to store the largest body of flowing freshwater on the planet and it releases 20 billion tonnes of water vapour into the atmosphere every day. This water vapour plays a crucial role in cooling and cleaning the atmosphere and provides fresh water and rainfall.

Wikipedia says: "The region is home to about 2.5 million insect species, tens of thousands of plants, and some 2000 birds and mammals. To date, at least 40,000 plant species, 3,000 fish, 1,294 birds, 427 mammals, 428 amphibians, and 378 reptiles have been scientifically classified in the region. The diversity of plant species is the highest on earth with some experts estimating that one square kilometer may contain over 75,000 types of trees and 150,000 species of higher plants. One square kilometer of Amazon rainforest can contain about 90,790 tonnes of living plants. This constitutes the largest collection of living plants and animal species in the world. One in five of all the birds in the world live in the rainforests of the Amazon."

The forest also stores carbon on a giant scale and when the trees and plants are cut down and burnt the carbon is released into the atmosphere in vast quantities. Brazil, one of the top greenhouse gas producers, produces about 300 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide a year - 200 million of these come from logging and burning in the Amazon. The CO2 released is greater than that released by the entire global transport system and equivalent to the carbon dioxide emissions of USA or China. One fifth of annual CO2 emissions come directly from deforestation.

Only a few thousand years ago, old-growth tropical rainforests covered as much as 12% of the earth's surface and provided the earth with clean, breathable air - now that figure has been reduced to less than 5%.

According to the Princes Rainforest Project - over the past 60 years, almost 50% of the world's rainforests have been felled and burned and the rate of destruction is increasing. About 32 million acres of tropical rainforest is lost per year - this is the equivalent of about 8.5 million football pitches!

The United States National Academy of Sciences concurs: "More than 50 million acres of rainforest, an area the size of England, Scotland and Wales, are destroyed or seriously degraded each year"

Mongabay.com says that between May 2000 and August 2006, Brazil alone lost nearly 150,000 square kilometers of forest - an area larger than Greece.

Cattle ranching is the leading cause of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. This has been the case since at least the 1970s: government figures attributed 38% of deforestation from 1966-1975 to large-scale cattle ranching. However, today the situation may be even worse. According to the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), "between 1990 and 2001 the percentage of Europe's processed meat imports that came from Brazil rose from 40 to 74 percent" and by 2003 "for the first time ever, the growth in Brazilian cattle production - 80 percent of which was in the Amazon - was largely export driven."

The information gathered in the Amazon on animals, plants and local tribes is used as an argument to governments and corporations against the destruction of the rainforest - by proving how greatly species' and locals are suffering from deforestation, we have a much stronger argument to make a positive change.

I need your help to raise money for these charies so please donate money into my bank account below (which I will add together and donate in one lump sum), or by emailing me if you would like to arrange a direct donation to either charity.

MR D JOHNSTON

NATWEST BANK, High Street Kensington - Royal Gardens, London

Account Number: 86001329

Sort Code: 503010

International IBAN No. GB42NWBK50301086001329

International SWIFT code. NWBKGB2L

To all who came to our loveDJ fundraising event and who've donated and supported me, here are three messages direct from the people involved, just for you:

From the Fauna Forever Tambopata Project:

From loveDJ:

From the Amazon Conservation Association: