WWF - For a living planet

The Amazon spans eight countries in South America and one overseas territory and contains one-third of the planet’s remaining rainforests. The source of one-fifth of all fresh water on Earth, it is the world’s largest river basin. It sustains millions of species, and is one of the world’s last refuges for jaguars, harpy eagles and pink river dolphins. Today, more than 30 million people live in the region. Although most live in large urban centres, almost all inhabitants remain dependent on the Amazon’s ecosystem for food, shelter and livelihood.

And scientific research has established a clear link between the health of the Amazon and the integrity of the global environment, especially our climate. 

Threats

The Amazon is still 80% intact but it faces a number of ever-growing threats. Rapid deforestation threatens the region. At current rates, as much as 55% of its rainforests could be gone by 2030, contributing significantly to global warming – which, in turn, poses a threat to the Amazon.

Rapidly expanding global markets for meat, soy and biofuels are another threat. The demand for these products is increasing the profitability of agriculture and strengthening the incentive for farmers to convert their legally-required forest reserves into pastures.

Large-scale transportation and energy infrastructure projects are other problems, as are weak governance and the lack of an integrated development vision.

Together, these threats could see the Amazon reach a tipping point where the climate dries and rainforest is replaced over large areas by a mixture of savannah and semi-arid ecosystems.

The destruction of and change in their habitats will adversely affect many species in the region.

Solutions

The immense scale of the challenges in the Amazon requires a long-term conservation vision backed by strong scientific expertise.

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

We are working to support the creation and management of protected areas to maintain large blocks of intact forest.

In Brazil, through the Amazon Region Protected Areas Programme, WWF is working to create a network of federal and state protected areas to safeguard 60 million hectares of the Amazon by 2013.

We are improving responsible natural resource management to support the livelihoods of forest-dependent people and floodplain communities.

We are also reducing the impact of infrastructure development projects in the Amazon by working with governments and financing institutions to encourage best practice and the adoption of sound social and environmental criteria and measures, such as sound environmental impact assessments, in the development of roads, dams and other infrastructure.

WWF is engaging with key markets, such as timber, beef and soy, to encourage producers, investors, retailers and consumers to adopt responsible environmental and social criteria.

We are helping to develop new ways of valuing standing forests, both for the stores of carbon they hold and for the other services they provide.

We are helping to address climate change by maintaining forest cover. Some degree of climate change is now inevitable. Coping with the expected impacts will require coordinated and adaptive management, for example in the Amazon's major tributaries, which WWF is promoting.