The government of Brazil and communities to join forces to conserve nearly 60 million acres across the Brazilian Amazon
© Christian Braga / WWF-Brazil
The government of Brazil, Brazilian communities, and a broad coalition of partners—including WWF—launched the ARPA Comunidades (ARPA Communities) initiative on November 17, 2025, building on the country’s longstanding commitment to conserving the Amazon.
The Brazilian Amazon supports more than 40 million people, contains at least 10% of the world’s known species, and contributes to the stability of the climate, at local and global levels. As a people-centered conservation initiative, ARPA Comunidades builds on the legacy of the Amazon Region Protected Areas (ARPA) program that Brazil, partners, and WWF launched successfully more than 20 years ago.
The initial ARPA initiative created the world’s largest tropical forest conservation program and in 2014 was strengthened further using a novel nature finance approach known as Project Finance for Permanence (PFP). ARPA established nearly 67 million acres of protected areas and improved their management, preventing close to 104 million tons of CO₂ emissions.
ARPA Comunidades is poised to become another successful PFP initiative that will reduce deforestation pressures in 60 sustainable-use protected areas that span 58.6 million acres—an area twice the size of Ohio—and will add another 7.4 million acres in new protected areas, while benefiting more than 130,000 people.
The launch of this major community-centered nature finance initiative cements local leadership, sustainable livelihoods, and broad partnerships as essential to the durable protection of the Amazon and its role in the planet’s health.
ARPA Comunidades is shaping the future of the Amazon by:
Providing a community-centered solution for people and nature in the Amazon and across the globe
Conservation is meaningful when we put communities at the forefront of our work. The Amazon is home to hundreds of traditional communities with knowledge and durable practices that are fundamental to effectively conserving this biome for the long term. ARPA Comunidades will support around 130 community organizations that focus on helping individuals safeguard their territorial rights, improving access to public policies and services, identifying opportunities for environmentally friendly livelihoods, strengthening local food security, supporting women and youth, and improving communities’ resilience to the impacts of climate change.
ARPA Comunidades will accelerate the implementation of public programs that aim to expand energy access in the Amazon and provide training on renewable energy system operation and maintenance, so communities aren’t reliant on distant partners for technical support.
Communities will gain access to the electrical grid, renewable energy, and internet services to 77,000 people living in protected areas supported by ARPA. This will replace costly and polluting diesel generators with clean, local renewable sources like solar, hydro, biomass, and wind, and provide reliable electricity to underserved communities, enhancing livelihoods and enabling durable development.
This initiative will also support the production and commercialization of non-timber forest products in ARPA's sustainable-use areas, allowing new opportunities for communities to benefit from a forest-based economy and increase societal recognition of the value of standing forests.
© Andre Dib / WWF Brazil
Deepening collaboration between governments, communities, and global partners
ARPA Comunidades unites local communities, government agencies, philanthropic partners, nongovernmental organizations, and others around a shared conservation vision for the Amazon that benefits the people who call it home—and the rest of us who share this planet.
The initiative is fueled by the PFP approach, which secures the policies, governance structure, and funding necessary for conservation success in a single agreement before the work begins—and achieves ambitious large-scale people-centered conservation in perpetuity.
On the ground, the ARPA Comunidades project team has engaged community organizations and civil society to develop the conservation plan and program structure. This has included consultations and workshops with more than a dozen local and regional groups. The team has also consulted with state governments on the project details, including Amazonas, Amapá, Mato Grosso, and Rondônia.
This PFP initiative reflects the efforts of an array of partners in collaboration with the government of Brazil, Brazilian Biodiversity Fund (FUNBIO), and WWF: Andes Amazon Fund, Bezos Earth Fund, Bobolink Foundation, Enduring Earth, Global Environment Facility, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Inter-American Development Bank, Laurie and Jeff Ubben, Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of the Federal Republic of Germany through KfW, Rainforest Trust, The Nature Conservancy, Walmart Foundation, World Bank, and ZOMA LAB.
"Traditional peoples and communities, with their ways of life and knowledge passed down through generations, are essential to addressing climate change. ARPA Communities seeks to strengthen their organizations, support the management of their territories, generate sustainable income for extractive populations based on socio-bioeconomy chains, and expand access to energy and connectivity to boost their ventures, This joint effort by the Brazilian government and partners demonstrates that cooperation, solidarity, and co-design are effective paths to public policies that value those who protect our ecosystems."
Marina Silva, Brazil Minister of Environment and Climate Change
© WWF/Tatiana Cardeal
“ARPA Communities is here to innovate the governance model of our territories. It brings the possibility of a sustainable development model that guarantees access to land and a better quality of life for its people. From the moment communities play a leadership role—participating in decision-making and implementation—we will create stronger, more transparent, and active governance. I have no doubt that ARPA Communities will be a transformative instrument that will strengthen sustainable extractive production, valuing our traditions and contributing to the preservation of our Amazon rainforest.”
Julio Barbosa, president of the National Council of Extractivist Populations
© WWF/Tatiana Cardeal
"This is a crucial time, a dramatic tipping point, in fact, for the Amazon and the entire planet. We must safeguard the future of the Brazilian Amazon’s life-giving rainforest and local communities. The traditional populations of the Amazon region play a crucial role in protecting local biodiversity and ensuring the region’s long-term conservation. ARPA Communities will position Brazil as a global leader and provide a model for integrating conservation and nature-based livelihoods that can be replicated within Brazil and around the world.”
Mauricio Voivodic, executive director of WWF-Brazil
© Adriano Gambarini / WWF Living Amazon Initiative
“For more than 20 years FUNBIO has been supporting some of the most important initiatives in the Amazon, including ARPA, The Amazon Region Protected Areas Program, which is now the benchmark for other Latin American countries and has inspired similar programs in Africa and Asia. Direct access to financial resources by those who deeply understand the forest is a crucial step for the conservation of the Amazon. With ARPA Comunidades, I truly believe we are changing the face and the future of the Brazilian Amazon for the better.”
Rosa Lemos de Sá, secretary general and CEO of FUNBIO
© Andre Dib / WWF-Brazil
“The Brazilian Amazon looms large in our world—an irreplaceable engine for our weather, economies, and well-being. More importantly, it is home to an astonishing array of fish, trees, animals, and great diversity of languages and cultures of the many human communities who call the Amazon their home. ...Conservation only endures when local people thrive alongside nature. The Project Finance for Permanence model behind ARPA Comunidades brings together every sector of society to create a future where both the Amazon and its people flourish.”
Carter Roberts, President and CEO of WWF-US
© Zig Koch / WWF
“ARPA Comunidades is the newest addition to the Project Finance for Permanence community of sustainable finance initiatives, demonstrating what is possible when government, Indigenous peoples, local communities, and partner organizations collaborate to achieve lasting conservation and sustainable development. With the addition of this new project, over 210 million hectares of lands and waters are durably conserved with the support of Enduring Earth and partners, with ten more projects underway and more than 150 local partners engaged around the world. The momentum of this work is driven by local leadership, collective knowledge, and stewardship that safeguard biodiversity, sustain cultural vitality, expand economic opportunities, and ensure the well-being of future generations.”
Zdenka Piskulich, Managing Director of Enduring Earth
© Adriano Gambarini / WWF Living Amazon Initiative
“Amazonia is vital for the world’s global biodiversity, climate goals, and for the viability of all humanity. Since 2001, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has supported partners in Andes-Amazon countries to help conserve over 400 million hectares in the Amazon. ARPA Comunidades will ensure communities have what they need for sustainable livelihoods and strong environmental stewardship, and we are proud to support Brazil's leadership and ambitious program for the benefit of people and planet.”
Avecita Chicchón, Program Director of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
© Andre Dib / WWF-Brazil
Establishing a socio-bioeconomy as a conservation strategy that bolsters livelihoods and protects the rainforest
Today, a significant portion of the people in the rural Amazon live below the poverty line. The more-than 130,000 people in ARPA areas face food insecurity and limited access to economic opportunities, public services, land rights, and energy resources. For vulnerable populations, economic opportunities linked to deforestation are a last resort.
A Brazilian study explored the link between poverty reduction and deforestation in the Amazon region and found that for every 100 people taken out of poverty, the rainforest avoided close to 62 acres of deforestation during an eight-year period.i
The key innovation in ARPA Comunidades addresses economic vulnerability using the concept of socio-bioeconomy, which refers to community-led, sustainable economic development activities, like honey production, handicrafts, and tourism. ARPA Comunidades will support communities in generating diversified incomes and creating opportunities for future generations to protect the rainforest in the face of encroaching threats.
These activities in ARPA protected areas have the potential to generate $95–132 million in annual revenue that can directly benefit over 130,000 people living in these areas, with the potential to lift 100,000 people out of poverty.
© Andre Dib
ARPA Comunidades is part of the larger Enduring Earth collaboration
ARPA Comunidades is part of Enduring Earth, a collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, The Pew Charitable Trusts, World Wildlife Fund, and ZOMA LAB. This ambitious joint effort partners with nations and local communities to address biodiversity loss, enhance community economic development, and deliver large-scale durable finance. By 2030, Enduring Earth aims to work with local leadership to conserve and protect more than 1.4 billion acres using the PFP model. With the addition of ARPA Comunidades, this marks the sixth PFP initiative supported by the Enduring Earth partnership, which has now helped local leadership to durably finance and conserve 518 million acres of lands and waters since its launch in 2021.
Through its design, ARPA Comunidades demonstrates that community leadership and forest-friendly livelihoods are essential for long-term conservation success. It establishes a conservation model for the Amazon and beyond that establishes resilient systems of protected areas while providing economic opportunities for local communities.
“Andes Amazon Fund is honored to be a part of this new phase of the ARPA project which provides needed support to the local people working every day to protect the Amazon. As the ARPA Comunidades program strategically invests in new forest protections, we plan to provide critical follow-through for local communities: building the on-the-ground capacity and resources required for long-term conservation success in this globally important ecosystem."
Megan MacDowell, Executive Director of Andes Amazon Fund
© Andre Dib
“The Nature Conservancy is proud to stand alongside Brazil and local communities in this landmark effort. ARPA Comunidades reflects our commitment to long-term community-led conservation and sustainable development, helping ensure that the Amazon thrives for generations to come. This initiative demonstrates what is possible when governments, communities, and partners unite behind a shared vision: protecting one of the planet’s most vital landscapes while improving the lives of those who call it home.”
Jennifer Morris, CEO of The Nature Conservancy
© WWF/Tatiana Cardeal
“Rainforest Trust is proud to join Brazil and our partners in the launch of ARPA Comunidades. This initiative represents the next generation of Amazon conservation with community leadership at its core. For nearly 40 years, Rainforest Trust has worked to protect critical habitats by empowering local stewards of the land. ARPA Comunidades reflects that same vision: lasting protection for the Amazon depends on the people who call it home.”
James Deutsch, CEO of Rainforest Trust
© Andre Dib / WWF-Brazil
"After looking at the territories covered by the Amazon Protected Areas program, the time has come to focus on the people who live in these territories. This will be done through an effective program of consultation and social participation, which points the way to sustainable development with inclusion. ARPA Comunidades renews our commitment to increase the impact and scale of our actions by developing joint and participatory solutions."
Annette Killmer, Head of the IDB Group's Country Office in Brazil
© WWF / Tatiana Cardeal
“ARPA Communities provides a unique, multisectoral platform for local communities, the Brazilian Government, and partners to come together and invest in safeguarding the forest, sustainable income opportunities, and improved living conditions – three dimensions that must go hand in hand. We are looking forward to this new chapter of conservation in the Amazon.”
- Niels Annen, State Secretary for the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
© Adriano Gambarini / WWF Living Amazon Initiative
“Initiatives like ARPA Comunidades show how Project Finance for Permanence can secure lasting conservation. By aligning policy and supporting community-led sustainable development, we ensure protected areas thrive and communities prosper. The GEF has supported ARPA since its inception and we look forward to support this new transformative approach.”
Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, CEO and Chairperson of the Global Environment Facility
© Adriano Gambarini / WWF Living Amazon Initiative
“Empowering communities is critical to protecting forests. We’re pleased our grant will support ARPA Communities, which combines conservation with inclusive sustainable development. This aligns directly with Walmart and Walmart Foundation’s Nature Goal to help protect, restore, and more sustainably manage 50 million acres and 1 million square miles of ocean. We look forward to seeing the impacts of this work and hope to see similar models scaled to other critical regions.”
Julie Gehrki, President, Walmart Foundation
© Shutterstock / COULANGES / WWF-Sweden
“ARPA Communities provides a unique, multisectoral platform for local communities, the Brazilian Government, and partners to come together and invest in safeguarding the forest, sustainable income opportunities, and improved living conditions – three dimensions that must go hand in hand. We are looking forward to this new chapter of conservation in the Amazon.”
Erwin de Nys, Environment Practice Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean at the World Bank
© Andre Dib / WWF-Brazil
More on how Project Finance for Permanence works
The innovative nature finance approach, PFP, fuels ARPA Comunidades with a proven track record in Brazil and beyond. The model forges a single agreement among governments, donors, and civil society that unlocks commitments—financial and programmatic—that will protect and manage large networks of conservation areas in perpetuity. PFPs draw on the private finance concept of a single fund closing, in which no funding is committed until a set of specific conditions are met. They avoid piecemeal approaches to conservation funding, which frequently fall short, while mobilizing the high-level resources and commitments necessary to realize ambitious goals and deliver change on a global scale. PFPs are one of our most effective tools for ensuring lasting conservation gains.
This kind of broad-based work is successful thanks to the generous commitment of public institutions, private philanthropists, corporations, and other partners who share WWF’s vision of a durable future for people, wildlife, and our planet.