Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world and the sixth most populous. At 3,286,470 square miles (8,511,965 square kilometers), it is larger than the continental United States and comprises half of South America. Forests cover 65 percent of Brazil’s territory and include the world’s largest tropical rain forest in the Amazon River Basin. Concerns over the destruction of the rain forests have prompted a global conservation effort, but illegal logging and slash-and-burn clearing continue