With their tropical climate, flowing rivers and dense forests, the vast plains and basins that make up South America’s lowlands cover a significant portion of the continent’s surface. Indeed, the Amazon rainforest covers approximately seven million square kilometres or around 40% of the total land area of South America.
These lowlands are primarily located in the eastern part of South America, stretching from the Andes mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. Two of the main lowland regions are the Amazon basin and the Gran Chaco – both diverse landscapes that are home to a wide variety of Indigenous cultures and communities.
As varied as the region is, much of its exuberant landscape has been drastically changed over the past 150 years by the arrival of mechanical machinery. And this is especially the case in territories inhabited by Indigenous people, who have been forced to adapt to new ways of living, with their traditional life transformed or disrupted.
