Amazonas

State in the northwest of Brazil, the country's largest state by area and one of the smallest by population; area 1,564,450 sq km/604,034 sq mi; population (1996) 1,231,007. Lying wholly within the basin of the River Amazon, which flows west to east across its centre, the state consists of a vast plain, all of it under 300 m/984 ft in height, and most of it below 150 m/492 ft. Amazonas is covered with thick forests of hardwood and dense jungle, and its main products are timber and other forest products, including rubber and Brazil nuts. The capital is Manaus. The Brazilian government and international environmental agencies are now monitoring and regulating development in Amazonas.

Amazonas is intersected by innumerable tributaries flowing into the River Amazon. Ocean-going vessels can reach Manaus, while vessels of up to 4 m/13 ft draught can navigate up the Amazon to the western border of the state and beyond, to Iquitos in Peru. Temperature and humidity are high, with little seasonal variation. Numerous small native Indian peoples subsist by hunting and gathering in the rainforest of Amazonas. However, these indigenous peoples have, since the 1980s, become increasingly threatened by the activities of cattle ranchers and logging and strip-mining concerns, all of whom have felled huge tracts of forest and despoiled the environment. Road building has increased to accommodate the new exploitation of the region.