Big cities and global farming now driving deforestation, study finds

In recent years, tropical countries have been supplying growing amounts of palm oil, soybeans, sugar, meat and other processed products to distant markets abroad. Not all the products are used for food; palm oil and sugar in particular are also being converted into biofuels.

Photo courtesy of Damon Winter/NY Times

Suriname president calls for 'unequivocal incentives' to preserve rainforests

Suriname is part of the Amazon rainforest region, with its large tracts of intact natural tropical forests, and have already protected thirteen percent of its territory and through longstanding and consistent conservation policy, Suriname has forest cover of over ninety percent and a minimal deforestation rate.

[Map by: The World Atlas Guide]

Amazon countries to hold climate talks

Leaders from the eight countries straddling the Amazon -- Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela -- have all been invited to Thursday's talks in the Brazilian city of Manaus, in the heart of the Amazon jungle.

[Photograph by: CityFiles/WireImage.com]