Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Amazon rainforest has existed for at least 55 million years and contains an estimated 16,000 tree species. One in ten known species in the world lives within these borders, including 2.5 million insect species and thousands of birds and mammals.
Human populations have inhabited the Amazon rainforest for at least 11,000 years, with estimates suggesting over 8 million people lived in the region in 1492. This population plummeted to 1 million by 1900 and less than 200,000 by the early 1980s due to European diseases like smallpox.
The Amazon rainforest derives its name from a war fought by Francisco de Orellana in 1542 with the Tapuyas and other tribes where women fought alongside men. The Jivaroan group including the Shuar practiced headhunting, while the Yanomami tribes were locked in constant infighting and the Munduruku were a warlike tribe that expanded along the Tapajós river.
More than 56% of the dust fertilizing the Amazon rainforest comes from the Bodélé depression in Northern Chad and carries phosphorus essential for plant growth. An average of 182 million tons of dust are windblown out of the Sahara each year, with 15% falling over the Amazon basin including 22 million tons consisting of phosphorus.
Research suggests that reaching about 20 to 25 percent deforestation will trigger the tipping point to flip the ecosystem into a degraded savanna. The year 2021 marked the first time the Amazon rainforest emitted more greenhouse gases than it absorbed overall.
Brazil's bank federation decided in May 2023 to implement a new sustainability standard demanding that meatpackers ensure their meat is not coming from illegally deforested areas. The World Bank published a report in 2023 warning that economic losses due to deforestation in Brazil could reach around 317 billion dollars per year.