ABSTRACT
The denominator for that calculation was "legal Amazonia," essentially double the naturally forested area. One of the logical concerns about deforestation in Amazonia is the possibility of extinction of species. The relationship between the percentages of Amazonia deforested and the percentage of Amazonian biota threatened with extinction depends, therefore, on the extent to which deforestation is aimed toward or away from refugia. The fresh waters of Amazonia constitute a massive system of perhaps one-fifth of the entire world's river waters; they support fisheries of considerable local importance. The understanding that can be gained from studying the hydrologic cycle in Amazonia may be critical in deciding how to protect rain forests and precipitation elsewhere, and perhaps even in restoring precipitation to degraded areas of the world. A possible relationship between forests and rainfall has been suggested for centuries in various parts of the world: that the forest attracts rain, that it creates rain, that deforestation reduces rain.
