Map Latin America

The economies of Latin American countries are mostly based in natural resources. In fact, Latin America has been one of the main exporters of natural resources to the world over the last two centuries. Latin America is rich in all kinds of products, from oil to lumber to coffee to minerals like nickel and gold.

In the natural resource industries, especially mining, working conditions are dangerous and workplace injuries and deaths are frequent. Workers are not paid well for their work but have little choice because other jobs are hard to find.

Working conditions are dangerous and workplace injuries and deaths are frequent.

In general, Latin American economies have not grown as much as they could have and are not as stable as they should be. Experts explain that this is mostly because of unstable governments and corruption in the region.

Even though Latin American countries export a lot of natural resources, the average person living in the region survives through subsistence farming. That’s when families grow just enough food to feed themselves, and perhaps sell some leftovers in the market. Because many indigenous people live in the mountains, where it is hard to grow food, some families are struggling to get by. A recent study showed almost 50 million rural Latin American farmers are living in extreme poverty and these numbers are rising quickly.

Protecting the Rainforest

Sometimes the economy doesn’t consider the environment.

“Each time a rainforest medicine man dies, it is as if a library has burned down.”—R.E. Shultes, Rainforest Scientist

The Amazon Rainforest stretches 2.1 million square miles across nine countries in the Latin American interior. The largest rainforest in the world, the Amazon is known as the “lungs of our planet” because it supplies the world with 20 percent of our oxygen. It is home to millions of species of plants, insects and animals. The Amazon is also home to indigenous people who have been living in the rainforests for thousands of years.

The Amazon Rainforest needs environmental protection

The medicine men of these indigenous groups possess vast knowledge of rainforest plants and their medicinal properties. They are the region’s trusted experts and walking encyclopedias of knowledge. As one group working to protect the rainforest says, “Each time a rainforest medicine man dies, it is as if a library has burned down.”

The oil and logging industries and even large-scale farming are endangering the rainforest because so many trees are being cut down. Fewer rainforests mean extinction, less oxygen to breathe and increasingly dangerous global warming.