"I have just finished an expedition to the Amazon rainforest of South America, the Earth's largest tropical rainforest. Like all rainforests around the world this place has a huge amount of rain – usually above 2.5 metres a year. Wow! That's more than three times what we get in some parts of Britain."

"Tropical rainforests cover less than two per cent of the Earth's surface, yet they are home to more than 50 per cent of ALL living things on your planet! More than five million species of plants, herbs, fruits, animals and insects, and over 50 million people live in rainforests. My computer has had trouble calculating all that data!"

"I was lucky enough to see a great variety of plants and animals when I was in the Amazon, including the incredible basilisk lizard that can walk on water, a beautiful jaguar with an amazing spotted coat, and a very strange animal called a three-toed sloth that likes to spend its time hanging around upside-down in trees!"

"I thought I was going to crash my solar-powered space craft when I was flying underneath the canopy of the forest, as the trees were so thick. But there were plenty of plants and animals to be found in this dark and damp environment. I also managed to do some experiments and I found the forest trees were storing huge amounts of the gas carbon dioxide."

"A local human told me that if planet Earth didn't have the rainforest to store all this carbon dioxide, it would cause a change in weather so bad that millions of animals could potentially become extinct, and humans would be affected by terrible storms, flooding and forest fires. What a scary fact!"

"The problem is that lots of trees are being cut down to supply people with wood for things like furniture and paper, or cleared to make way for roads and houses. This means there are fewer trees to absorb all this carbon dioxide. To make matters worse, people are creating additional carbon dioxide, when they drive cars or burn fuel to make energy."

"The answer is to try and protect these forests by ensuring that all logging is properly controlled and monitored and by helping local communities to have more control over the forests where they live. Restoring existing forests through tree planting and encouraging growth with also help to encourage wildlife back to these areas."

"Thankfully WWF has been working with local people and governments to make sure the world's rainforest are protected. New trees are planted to replace ones that have already been cut down or destroyed, and the amazing wildlife is protected in some places. I am so pleased something is being done."