The Amazon rainforest, home to some 10% of known species on Earth, is a lynchpin for global biodiversity. In this article, the Federated Hermes Biodiversity Equity team explains the crucial role investors play in halting and reversing deforestation.

• The importance of the Amazon rainforest in tackling climate change and biodiversity loss is widely acknowledged. Forests absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, providing a valuable carbon store. They produce oxygen during photosynthesis, which is why the Amazon rainforest is often referred to as ‘the lungs of the planet’.
• It is one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth, providing abundant ecosystem services that sustain our economies and societies. Biodiversity is intrinsically linked to the biological, chemical, and physical processes that underpin all life on Earth.
• The Amazon rainforest represents nearly a third of all the tropical rainforest remaining on Earth. It is the habitat for approximately 10% of known species on Earth, though the figure is likely to be higher as many species are still being discovered. It also plays an important role in regulating local and global precipitation patterns, with 20 billion tonnes of water released from trees into the air every day.

Acknowledgements: Federated Hermes would like to thank Dr Adriana De Palma, Dr Gareth E Thomas, Sara Contu, and Prof. Andy Purvis from the Natural History Museum for providing the data and analysis contained within this report. 

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