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The largest country in South America, Brazil became independent of Portugal in 1822. Today, it is renowned as the site of the world's largest tropical rainforest, the threat to which led to the UN's first international environment conference, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Covering one-third of Brazil's total land area, the rainforest grows around the massive Amazon River and its delta. Apart from the basin of the River Plate in the south, the rest of the country consists of highlands. The mountainous northeast is part forested and part desert. Brazil is the world's leading coffee producer and also has rich reserves of gold, diamonds, oil, and iron ore. Cattle ranching is an expanding industry. The city of São Paulo is the world's fifth-biggest conurbation, with some 20 million inhabitants.