World Wildlife Fund

WWF is achieving results in the Amazon by protecting species and preserving their vital forest and freshwater habitats.
© WWF / Edward Mendell

WWF has been at the forefront in protecting the Amazon for more than 40 years. Our approach has succeeded because we engage local communities and partner with governments to identify mutual solutions that can bridge the needs of economic development and conservation. Read more about WWF's conservation results in the Amazon.  

Alto Purus: a conservation and human rights victory
Located in a remote section of the southwestern Amazon in Peru, Alto Purús contains enormous expanses of intact lowland tropical moist forests and unique flooded savannas. Peru's creation of the Alto Purús Reserved Zone, one of the largest combined protected areas and indigenous territories in the world, is a huge win for indigenous communities and a major step towards realizing our conservation vision for the Amazon.

Alto Purús' territorial reserve will increase protection of indigenous communities' land rights.
© WWF-Canon / André Bärtschi

WWF worked to establish this 6.7 million acre protected area of intact forest that is equal in size to the state of Massachusetts. This land also connects previously isolated forests - creating a conservation corridor of 81.5 million acres that stretches for nearly 700 miles through Brazil, Bolivia and Peru. 

The Alto Purús protected area combines a traditional national park, a communal reserve for indigenous communities, and a territorial reserve that will increase protection of the land rights of an indigenous group which has chosen to avoid all contact with the outside world to safeguard its ancient culture. The new protected area is also home to iconic species such as the jaguar, harpy eagle, scarlet macaw, giant river otter and black spider monkey.

Amazonas protected areas: a buffer against deforestation
The Brazilian State of Amazonas is the largest state in the Brazilian Amazon with some of its most intact forest and diverse landscapes. In 2006, the Brazilian government designated a mosaic of protected areas covering 7.5 million acres in the southern part of the state. The Apui mosaic covers a territory larger than Vermont and consists of nine interconnected conservation areas that afford different levels of protection. It is designed to protect biodiversity while containing the unregulated advance of agriculture and the illegal invasion of public land in the region. Included in the mosaic are reserves that allow indigenous groups and other users to sustainably harvest natural resources. 

WWF carried out technical and scientific studies that contributed to the design of the protected areas, provided material support for the development of a biodiversity conservation strategy, and also funded the public consultations vital to the process. 

Notable Accomplishments 

1970s 

• Launched the Minimum Critical Size project to determine long-term impacts of deforestation and habitat fragmentation
  on a large tropical forest 

1980s

• Expanded WWF’s presence in the region; today, over 100 people are based in our offices throughout the Amazon

1990s

• Established resource reserves for rubber and Brazil nuts in Rondônia to prevent agricultural conversion of forests
• Secured commitment by Brazil’s government to protect 12 percent of Brazil’s forests and extend protection of the Brazilian Amazon three-fold; jointly developed the Amazon Region Protected Areas (ARPA) Program to implement this historic commitment. In 2008 the program was expanded to protect 14 percent of the region’s rain forests.

2000s

• Participated in an historic debt-for-nature swap by Peru and the United States; it converted $10.6 million of debt into funds
  for conserving 27.5 million acres of Amazon rain forest

• Secured over 79 million acres for conservation through ARPA, including national and state parks, sustainable resource use areas and extractive reserves