© Shutterstock / Gustavo Frazao / WWF | WWF-US / Ricardo Lisboa
Amazon
The Amazon rainforest is one of Earth's most vital ecosystems—spanning nine countries and teeming with a dazzling array of wildlife and plants. As development and other pressures mount, conservation efforts are crucial to safeguarding this critical landscape.
The Amazon is a vast biome that spans eight rapidly developing countries—Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, and Suriname—and French Guiana, an overseas territory of France.
The landscape contains:
- About one in 10 known species on Earth
- 1.4 billion acres of dense forests
- 20% of the world's liquid freshwater
- 2.7 million square miles in the Amazon basin, about 40% of South America
There is a clear link between the health of the Amazon and the health of the planet. The rainforests, which contain an estimated 150 billion–200 billion tons of carbon, help stabilize the local and global climate. Deforestation releases significant amounts of this carbon, which is having negative consequences around the world.
Wildlife of the Amazon
Millions of species live here—many of which remain undescribed
The Amazon contains millions of species, most still undescribed, and some of the world's most unusual wildlife. It is one of Earth's last refuges for jaguars, harpy eagles, and pink river dolphins, and home to thousands of birds and butterflies. Tree-dwelling species include southern two-toed sloths, pygmy marmosets, saddleback and emperor tamarins, and Goeldi's monkeys.
The diversity of the Amazon is staggering.
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50,000 plant species
Nearly 50,000 plant species grow in the Amazon, some of which play a role in modern medicine.
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2,400 freshwater fish species
These include piranhas, freshwater eels, and pirarucu.
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370 types of reptile
From boas to caimans, reptiles occupy a wide range of Amazon habitats.
Amazon River dolphins
Also known as the boto or ‘pink river dolphin,’ the Amazon River dolphin swims throughout much of the famed South American river basin and the neighboring Orinoco river basin that stretches through Colombia and Venezuela.
© Shutterstock / COULANGES / WWF-Sweden
Sloths
Sloths are an integral part of tropical rainforest ecosystems, and the health of their population is wholly dependent on the health of their habitat.
© Chris J Ratcliffe / WWF-UK
Macaws
Macaws are highly intelligent, mate for life, and can live up to 60 years.
© Adriano Gambarini / WWF Living Amazon Initiative
Jaguars
Jaguars play an important role in maintaining the structure and function of the ecosystems they inhabit.
© Karine Aigner / naturepl.com / WWF
Black spider monkey
The black spider monkey play a key role in seed dispersal, allowing their forest environment to continue to grow and thrive.
© Roger Leguen / WWF-Canon
To protect these species, WWF works with local communities, partner nongovernmental organizations, corporations, and governments to ensure that deforestation and degradation of rivers are alleviated.
People and communities of the Amazon
Forty-seven million people live in the Amazon region and depend upon it for their livelihoods, including 2.2 million Indigenous Peoples
© WWF/Tatiana Cardeal
More than 42 million people, including over 500 Indigenous and ethnic groups, live in the Amazon and depend on nature for agriculture, clothing, and traditional medicines. Most live in large urban centers, but all residents rely on the Amazon’s natural bounty for food, shelter, and livelihoods. People also use the region’s waterways for transport.
Amazon under threat
Despite its mighty splendor, the Amazon’s forest and freshwater systems are fragile and at risk
© Andre Dib / WWF-Brazil
Poorly planned infrastructure
Transportation and energy infrastructure are essential for national and regional development, but when they are poorly planned, negative impacts can exceed short-term benefits. For example, building new roads exposes previously inaccessible areas of forest to illegal and unsustainable logging, as well as illegal or unplanned settlements and agricultural expansion.
Hydropower is now used to meet the region's growing demand for energy, but many dams are being constructed in areas of high conservation value. The dams:
- Disrupt river connectivity
- Block the range of many aquatic species, including migratory fish and river dolphins
- Interfere with some subsistence and commercial fisheries
To minimize the impacts of hydropower, WWF is promoting scenario planning that explores alternative energy options and promotes transboundary cooperation for river basin management. WWF has also mapped out freshwater connectivity corridors across the basin. This work has allowed us to pinpoint stretches of river that are most critical for connectivity to be maintained for the future health of the Amazon basin, its communities, and flagship freshwater species.
Illegal and unsustainable natural resource extraction
There is high demand for the natural resources found in the Amazon, but weak law enforcement to safeguard them. In addition, inefficient extraction processes lead to the destruction of nature and wildlife. For example, mining activities contribute to soil erosion and water contamination. Mercury contamination of Amazonian waters from artisanal mining is of particular concern, given the consequential impacts on human health and contamination of the food chain for fish and wildlife.
WWF works to promote best practices and decrease environmental damage from:
- Illegal logging
- Overharvesting of fish and other aquatic species
- Oil exploration
- Gold mining
Land speculation and agricultural expansion
There are several economic incentives in place that contribute to deforestation in the Amazon: Real estate speculation is a major driver. The price of land in the Amazon can increase up to tenfold once the forest has been cleared.
Amazon forests also suffer as global demand for products such as beef and soy increases. Forests are cleared for more and more cattle grazing pasture and cropland. These growing industries displace small farmers, forcing them into forested areas they must clear to sustain themselves.
Cattle pastures occupy about 80% of deforested areas in the Brazilian Amazon. Cattle ranching is also a major driver of deforestation in Colombia and Bolivia. Pasture runoff contaminates rivers. Fire used to manage fields often spreads into the remaining forests. The deforestation caused by ranching also contributes to climate change.
© Andre Dib / WWF-Brazil
© Jacqueline Lisboa / WWF-Brazil
Illegal and unsustainable natural resource extraction
There is high demand for the natural resources found in the Amazon, but weak law enforcement to safeguard them. In addition, inefficient extraction processes lead to the destruction of nature and wildlife. For example, mining activities contribute to soil erosion and water contamination. Mercury contamination of Amazonian waters from artisanal mining is of particular concern, given the consequential impacts on human health and contamination of the food chain for fish and wildlife.
WWF works to promote best practices and decrease environmental damage from:
- Illegal logging
- Overharvesting of fish and other aquatic species
- Oil exploration
- Gold mining
Climate change
The Amazon is critical to our efforts to avoid a climate catastrophe. Water vapor released from the Amazon creates vast “flying rivers” in the atmosphere, which influence rainfall and thus agricultural production in central and southern South America. And the billions of tons of carbon stored in the Amazon rainforest are of global importance to slowing climate change.
But the Amazon is threatened by rising deforestation. Unprecedented droughts are happening with growing frequency. Dry seasons are hotter and longer. Long dry spells wither crops, decimate fisheries, and lead to forest fires. This can result in significant shifts in the makeup of ecosystems and a loss of species.
According to many notable scientists, including longtime friend of WWF Tom Lovejoy, the Amazon is close to a tipping point past which it will no longer be able to sustainably support itself. To ensure the Amazon’s future, for its people and biodiversity, deforestation in the region should not exceed 20%–25%, and it is already at approximately 17%. Our vision is zero net deforestation in the Amazon to safeguard this globally important ecosystem.
Pledge for Our Planet
The diversity of life on our planet faces major challenges from threats like climate change, deforestation, overfishing, and illegal wildlife trade.
Together, we can take action to create lasting solutions and protect the future of nature.
© Zig Koch / WWF
WWF is taking action to protect the Amazon
We work alongside partners to safeguard this magnificent rainforest
© WWF-US/Yawar Films
Protecting and conserving the Amazon, a place two-thirds the size of the United States, is a big job. WWF has been working in the Amazon since the 1970s and is at the forefront of efforts to protect the people, forests, and species that call it home. We engage local communities and partner with governments to identify solutions that bridge the needs of economic development and conservation.
Confronting drivers of deforestation and resulting habitat loss
Each year, the Amazon loses thousands of square miles of forested area. Agricultural expansion, ranching, infrastructure projects, energy exploration, and illegal logging are to blame. We address the following:
Soy farming
WWF works with the Soy Roundtable—made up of soy producers, processors, and exporters—to improve the sustainability of the participants’ practices and minimize the impact on the Amazon and its wildlife. WWF is also a part of the collaborative group of NGOs behind the Soy Moratorium, a voluntary agreement between transnational trading companies, soy producers, and civil society in Brazil to ban the conversion of Amazon forests to soy after 2006, which drastically reduced deforestation for soy cultivation in the region. This was a critical first step toward taking deforestation and conversion out of soy supply chains, though more work is needed to avoid leakage of this issue to nearby ecosystems like the Cerrado savanna and Chaco woodlands.
© Pierina Bellota / WWF-Perú
Cattle ranching
WWF works with the beef industry to create standards that increase efficiency and reduce waste. This includes educating ranchers about why it is not necessary to convert more forests into pasture to increase profits. WWF works through the Global and US Beef Roundtables to develop principles and criteria that increase the productivity of existing cattle ranches and prevent the establishment of new ranches in high conservation value forests. Beginning with support from the Moore Foundation and now with an additional grant from the Tapestry Foundation, WWF is also working with brands and tanneries around the world to develop deforestation- and conversion-free sources of hides coming from South America, catalyzing efforts to ensure that hides don’t come from deforested land.
Hydropower
Improperly sited dams can have significant impacts on fisheries, wildlife, and people who depend upon them. WWF supports low-carbon, low-cost, and low-conflict energy sources, particularly through energy scenario planning that considers alternative development options and siting of needed energy infrastructure in locations that minimize impacts on people and nature.
Illegal and unsustainable logging
High demand for timber products, weak laws, and poorly implemented trade rules lead to logging that destroys nature. WWF works to create market conditions that conserve the world’s forests but also provide economic and social benefits for businesses and people. To do so, WWF works to strengthen the US government’s ability to prosecute illegal timber cases; stop illegal logging in countries that export high volumes of timber; and ensure full implementation of the Lacey Act, a US law that prohibits illegal timber and timber products from entering the US market.
Infrastructure
In Colombia, WWF partnered with the government to create participatory, ecologically sustainable road development processes. In February 2021, the government of Colombia announced the Green Road Infrastructure (GRI) Guidelines, a set of national government guidelines for building sustainable and resilient road transport infrastructure. The Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, WWF-Colombia, and the Colombian NGO Foundation for Conservation and Sustainable Development collaborated to design the guidelines. The guidelines are a major achievement for the people of Colombia and the Amazon, taking into consideration the needs of local people as well as the health of this critical region.
© WWF/Tatiana Cardeal
Developing a sustainable forest economy
Regional and global demand for natural resources, including timber and fish, can be met without devastating the environment. We work with the agriculture and timber sectors to eliminate waste and increase production efficiency.
We also seek to promote demand for sustainable forest products. WWF engages local Indigenous communities and governments to manage protected areas and supports local communities’ ability to earn a living sustainably. For example, WWF has focused on encouraging the development and scaling of Indigenous enterprises based on the sustainable use of forest products, fisheries management, and aquaculture. And in a protected area in Bolivia, WWF supports training and organic certification for sustainable Brazil nut harvesting.
© Luis Barreto / WWF-UK
© WWF-Brazil / Adriano Gambarini
© WWF-Brazil / Adriano Gambarini
Protecting forests
WWF collaborates with governments across the Amazon to create, manage, and permanently fund protected forest areas using the Project Finance for Permanence (PFP) approach.
In Brazil, through the Amazon Region Protected Areas (ARPA) program, WWF worked to support and expand a network of parks covering 154 million acres of forest. This area is over 50% larger than the US National Park System. Between 2008 and 2020, the protected areas supported by ARPA prevented 1,000 square miles of deforestation, equivalent to 104 million tons of avoided CO2 emissions.
In Colombia, an ambitious effort by organizations, including WWF, and environmental authorities is protecting approximately 79 million acres of ocean and forest, including Serranía de Chiribiquete National Park, the world’s largest national park protecting a tropical rain forest. This initiative, called Heritage Colombia, is helping Colombia achieve its forest conservation goals and 30x30 target to protect 30% of its ocean by 2030.
In Peru, the Peruvian government-led effort, known as National Parks: Peru’s Natural Legacy, will permanently protect nearly 41 million acres in the Peruvian Amazon and secure 7.5 billion metric tons of carbon. The initiative supports greater resilience to climate change and benefits 1.4 million people who depend on Peru’s rainforests for food, medicines, and clean energy.
Taken together, ARPA, Heritage Colombia, and Peru's Natural Legacy permanently protect 12% of the entire Amazon rainforest.
Featured WWF projects in the Amazon
© Day’s Edge Productions/WWF-US
Protect funding for conservation
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© Days Edge Productions / WWF-US
