LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Amazon: Amazon Basin
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BELEM — The Amazon basin's worst drought in more than 40 years is ending as rainfall returns to normal, though officials fear diseases will spread as rising rivers stir up muck from stagnant pools of contaminated water. (Related story: Amazon drought continues, worst on record)
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The Amazon Basin contains the largest tropical rain forest in the world. Originally more than 2 million square miles in area, the Amazon can no longer rely on its vastness and remoteness for protection as it increasingly is lost to activities like selective logging, overfishing and hunting and unsustainable tourism. Only a small percentage of the region’s native species have been discovered, but those few have yielded valuable foods, medicines and commercial products.
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The greatest river of South America, the Amazon is ... the world's largest river in water volume and the area of its drainage basin. Together with its tributaries the river drains an area of 2,722,000 square miles (7,050,000 square kilometers)—roughly one third of the continent.
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The eastern part of Ecuador forms part of the Amazon Basin. The Amazon region, the world's largest remaining tropical rainforest, where more than one third of the earth's fresh water flows, hosts a huge biological diversity and many unique species. At first glance, the rain forest is a vast humid and green wilderness. However, as one observes carefully, this ecosystem is full of surprises. Not only is each tree very different from the next, but ... for every tree there are hundreds of other plant and animal species in constant interaction. Tropical rain forests cover 7% of the Earth’s surface, but they hold 50% of the world’s biodiversity.
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AMP supports the Yanamono Medical Clinic in the remote Amazon basin of northeastern Peru by providing primary care, involving locally trained people and encouraging preventative medicine. The clinic was founded in 1990 by Dr. Linnea J. Smith, M.D.
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