The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. It is located mainly in Brazil, but also stretches into Peru and several other countries. The South American rain forest of the Amazon is the largest in the world, covering about 8,235,430 km2 with dense tropical forest.
The Amazon basin has been continuously inhabited for more than 12,000 years, since the first proven arrivals of people in South America. By the 16th century the population was scattered in hundreds of small tribes. Upon the discovery of the Americas, the Portuguese and the Spanish signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, which divided the continents in two, but in 1750 the Treaty of Madrid certified the transfer of most of the Amazon basin to the Portuguese side, greatly contributing to the continental size of what is now Brazil.
Intense deforestation began in the second half of the 20th century, with population growth and development plans such as the failed Brazilian Trans-Amazonian Highway. In the late 1980s the Brazilian Chico Mendes, who lived in Acre, became internationally famous for his passionate defense of the forest and its people, especially after he was shot to death by farmers whose interest he harmed.
(www.en.wikipedia.org. Adaptado.)
Segundo o texto, a bacia amazônica