Endangered Ecosystem: Amazon River Basin
One in 10 of all animal species are found in the Amazon.
June 6, 2010— -- The vast physical scale of the Amazon River and its jungles are matched only by the impressive array of statistics relating to the area.
The region spans the borders of eight countries and one overseas territory.
The Amazon has the world's largest river basin and is the source of one fifth of all free flowing fresh water on Earth.
The Amazon rain forests are the planet's largest and home to one-tenth of all known species on Earth.
Given all that the Amazon is, there is little wonder that it has been a magnet for explorers and adventurers from all over the world.
The first European to sail into the river was the Spanish explorer Vicente Yanez Pinzon in 1515. Pinzon was followed by many of his compatriots in search of the legendary, and, until now, elusive El Dorado, the lost city of gold.
To this day there has not been a single person who has managed to walk from the source of the river to where it pours into the Atlantic Ocean.
With that in mind, one (some may say, crazy) Englishman, Ed Stafford, set off from the source of the Amazon in Peru more than two years ago, to accomplish that very feat.
It was on the banks of this mighty river where Bill Weir managed to catch up with Stafford and got a taste of life in this awe-inspiring part of the world.
On the subject of the Amazon, Stafford has had quite a bit of time to observe and ponder the region and man's impact there.
"The Amazon in all its glory is fantastic because it's so sparsely populated," he said. "If you live in an Amazonian town, part of the beauty of it, part of the character of it, is that all of your transport is by boat and I personally don't see the need to cut a big road through the forest, because the beauty of living in the Amazon is that you have this complete aquatic lifestyle basically.
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