Rainforests of the World: Clustered Around the Equator

Tropical rainforests form a green belt around Earth’s waist—the tropical rainforest zone between the Tropic of Cancer (23.5°N) and Tropic of Capricorn (23.5°S), centered on the equator.

Four Major Blocks

1. Amazon Basin (South America) – 5.5M km². Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana. Largest, most biodiverse.
2. Congo Basin (Central Africa) – 2M km². DRC, Congo, CAR, Gabon, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea. Second largest.
3. Southeast Asia – Indonesia (Sumatra, Borneo, Papua), Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Myanmar, Thailand, Philippines. Fragmented but hyper-diverse.
4. Australasia – Northeast Queensland (Daintree), New Guinea (shared), Pacific islands (Solomons, Vanuatu).

Why Here?

• Constant warmth (20–30°C) → year-round growth.
• High, consistent rainfall (1,750–3,000+ mm/yr) → no dry season (or short).
• Intense solar radiation → high photosynthesis.
• Convergence zones (ITCZ) → persistent convection.

Temperate rainforests exist outside this belt (Pacific NW, Chile, NZ, Tasmania, Japan, UK) but are structurally different—cooler, conifer-dominated, lower diversity.

Threat: This equatorial belt loses ~10M hectares/year. Protecting it stabilizes climate, biodiversity, and indigenous futures.