Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio. I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

When Malaysians voted last year to oust the party that had been in power for six decades, they wanted change.

But after more than a year, the repressive, illiberal laws that characterized the party's rule are still on the books.

We ask why.

And the global rise in tourism takes different tolls in different destinations.

We take a look at how Norway is dealing with one such effect,

the growing scourge of fish smuggling.

First up, though.

The Amazon basin is home to the largest rainforest on Earth.

It spans 7 million square kilometers and crosses eight countries in South America. It's key to the global climate, and it's a storehouse of global life.

The Amazon is home to about 10 or 15% of the world's biodiversity.

Sarah Maslin is our Brazil correspondent based in Sao Paulo.

It's been a source of food and fuel for the people who live on it for millennia,

and its rain supports agriculture throughout the whole region of South America.

In recent decades, it's become increasingly clear that the Amazon is also crucial to the entire world.

The ability of its trees to store carbon dioxide

is one of the most important protections we have left

against global warming.

But since the 1970s, nearly a million square kilometers

have been lost to logging, farming, mining, roads, dams, and other forms of development.

That's around 17%.

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