Where is the largest rain forest?

   The basin of the Amazon River in South America is the largest tropical rain forest, covering 2.7 million square miles (6 percent of Earth's land surface) in nine countries (65 percent in Brazil, the remainder in French Guiana, Surinam, Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia). The rain forest contains a greater variety of plant and animal life than any other place in the world.
   During the past 40 years, more than 200,000 square miles have been destroyed, mainly from conversion of land to cattle grazing. Mining, logging, farming, and road building are other factors. In the 1980s, under pressure from international conservation groups, Brazil began to control the rate of development in the rain forest; however, Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts estimates a loss of 17,000 square miles per year, three times the Brazilian government's estimate.