Regions of South America

The number of wildfires in the Amazon jungle continues to grow, although the government has introduced a ban on fire making for farmland cleaning, AFP reported.

In the first 48 hours after the ban was introduced, data from the satellite of the National Space Research Institute showed 3859 new outbreaks, of which 2000 were concentrated in the rain forest area.

Pope Francis has expressed concern about the fires that are devastating the Amazon forest, which he called "a vital lung for the planet," according to world agencies.

Destruction of these forests can have a devastating impact on all humanity.
The Amazon forests or ''the lungs'' of the Earth. It is one of the most beautiful regions of the planet, but much of it remains poorly understood.

Three Romanians - Catalin Neacsu, Mihai Emil Isar and Bogdan Guta - intend to cross on Pegas(us) bicycles the Atacama Desert and climb from the Pacific oceanfront to over 5,800 m altitude on the slopes of the world's highest volcano, the Ojos Del Salado (6,893 m), reads a press release sent to AGERPRES.

The destruction of Brazil's Amazon forest, the world's largest intact rainforest, increased by 16 percent in 2015 from a year ago, as the world readies to hold a climate conference in Paris. 

Satellite data for the 12 months through the end of July released on Nov. 26 showed that 5,831 square km of forests were cleared in the Brazilian Amazon, an area half the size of Puerto Rico. 

Destruction of the Peruvian Amazon is rising after expanding over more than 145,000 hectares (560 square miles) last year - an 80 percent jump from the start of the century, the government said on Dec. 2.
 
Forest is mainly being cleared for farming, said Gustavo Suarez de Freitas, an official in the environment ministry.

Deforestation in Brazil's storied Amazon basin region skyrocketed more than 450 percent in October from a year earlier, a non-governmental group warned Nov. 17.
      
The alarming loss was the equivalent of 24,000 football pitches, said Imazon, which works to support sustainable development in the massive and unique ecosystem.
      

High up in the Peruvian plateaus of the Andes Mountains, 'Mama Jatha,' meaning nurturing mother, is how the natives call potatoes. The story of the potato is a long one, but its history in Turkey is rather short