ABSTRACT
The Amazon Basin constitutes the largest tract of tropical rainforest, over 557 million hectares (UNESCO/FAO/UNEP 1978: 22), and is one of the most species diverse regions in the world (Goodland and Irwin 1977; Sioli 1981: 264-5). Yet extinction due to deforestation is occurring at an alarming rate. Gottlieb (1981: 23) estimates that 90 per cent of the natural inventory of organisms will vanish into extinction before even basic descriptions can be made.
