In photographs taken from space one is struck by how colourful the Earth is: the predominant blue of the oceans, the yellowish brown of the deserts, the white of the poles and high mountains, the many shades of green of the rainforests. Particularly conspicuous is the green of the Amazon region. This extensive rainforest is sometimes called the lung of the earth. And with good reason, for with its seven million square kilometres it is by far the largest forest in the world.

The biodiversity of the Amazon region is vast, thirty percent of the total variety of life forms is found here. According to rough estimates there are 2.5 million species of insects, almost 2,000 species of birds and mammals and 3,000 species of fish. The diversity of trees and plants is also unequalled, with some 40,000 different species. The Amazon rainforest is an important source of tropical hardwood. Because of the enormous demand for it (also from the Netherlands) together with the extraction of minerals and land claims for extensive agriculture, one-fifth of the Amazon region has meanwhile been deforested. For the quality of the earth.s environment this is an extremely disturbing development.

The economic value of the Amazon region competes for priority with the landscape and biological value. This conflict is observed worldwide both on a larger and smaller scale. In the Netherlands, for example, the landscape value of the Green Heart is threatening to lose out to the spatial requirements of the surrounding cities. Politics is organized in such a way that short-term interests often predominate. Nevertheless, there appears to be a change in public opinion, although extrapolating environmental standpoints to one.s own behaviour is another matter. Numerous Dutch organizations are concerned with conservation of the landscape and the variety of species, both at home and abroad. In 2007, the nature and environmental organizations in the Netherlands had some four million members, as opposed to only 600,000 in 1980. An influential ex-politician like Ruud Lubbers draws capacity crowds at youth festivals and elsewhere with his enthusiastic plea for the Earth Charter, in which principles of harmonious human coexistence are linked with respect for the natural environment.