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Covering an area larger than the entire continental United States and containing the largest tropical forest in the world, the Amazon River Basin harbors nearly one-third of the world’s species and contains nearly one-quarter of the earth’s fresh water. In addition to its wealth of discovered and undiscovered flora and fauna, the Amazon is home to many diverse traditional and indigenous human populations.
Location
The Conservancy’s Amazon Conservation Program spans six countries (Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela). Most of the Amazon Basin lies in Brazil where it comprises nearly 1.9 million square miles (5 million square kilometers).
Why the Conservancy Works Here
The Amazon is the most biodiverse place on Earth. It harbors incredible wildlife and numerous indigenous cultures that maintain little or no contact with the outside world. The Amazon also plays a key role in regional and global carbon cycles and climate.
What the Conservancy Is Doing
Indigenous lands comprise more than 20% of the entire Amazon Basin, and area four times larger than Germany. There are more than 300 different indigenous groups in the Amazon Basin. After decades of struggle, indigenous peoples have recently gained legal title to their ancestral lands. The Conservancy is helping them responsibly manage and protect these new areas in their charge. This includes providing institutional support in training and public policy outreach to COIAB (Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon), the largest representative indigenous organization in the Brazilian Amazon.
A key activity being carried out in all indigenous areas where the Conservancy works is ethnomapping, an innovative tool that is the first step towards conservation planning and natural resource management in indigenous reserves.
Conservancy's strategies in the Brazilian Amazon include:
Indigenous Lands
Amazon Indigenous Training Center (CAFI)
One of the Conservancy’s flagship initiatives in indigenous land management training is the Amazon Indigenous Training Center, or CAFI as it is known locally. CAFI seeks to empower indigenous people and their organizations from across the Amazon with the skills to manage their lands and waters into the future. Read about CAFI's graduation ceremony, held on November 19th, 2009.
Oiapoque
Since 2001, the Nature Conservancy has been working in community-based natural resource management and planning in the Oiapoque region, located in the far northeastern corner of the Amazon in Amapá state. This region is comprised of three contiguous indigenous areas of high conservation value, boasting diverse ecosystems like upland tropical rain forests, flooded forests, savannas and mangroves. Conservation activities include:
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training indigenous environmental agents
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community forest management for andiroba oil
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bee, turtle and cayman management
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institutional strengthening to the local indigenous association.
Roraima
Target conservation areas in the indigenous lands of Roraima state along the Venezuelan border contain ecosystems like rain forests, savannas, and high-altitude forests where one of Brazil’s highest mountain chains is located. In the savannas, aside from many archaeological sights, it is possible to also find rare wild horse populations. The Conservancy is supporting institutional development of local indigenous associations and aiding them with technical assistance in sustainable land-use planning.
Private Lands
Conversion to agriculture and cattle ranching is the greatest threat to the Amazon rainforest. At the current rate, scientists predict that more than half of the Amazon could be cleared or severely degraded within decades and this land conversion contributes significantly to global warming. The Conservancy believes that the key to reverse this trend and reconcile the demand for increased agricultural production with conservation is an extraordinarily prescient Brazilian law - the Forest Code, which says that, in the Amazon, farmers should retain 80% of their lands under native vegetation. Our work in private lands is founded on compliance with the code and responsible sourcing by business. Learn more about our Responsible Soy project.
Forests and Climate
About 70 percent of Brazil’s emissions come from the destruction of its forests, making it one of the world’s top greenhouse gas emitters, just behind the United States, China and Indonesia. The Conservancy is working with landowners, government officials, businesses and indigenous communities to establish two large-scale forest carbon pilot projects that will cover a combined 19.2 million hectares in the Brazilian Amazon, an area more than twice the size of Portugal.
Preliminary studies reveal that these programs may prevent deforestation of about 1.8 million hectares in the next decade and reduce emissions of approximately 980 million tons of carbon dioxide, equal to the emissions from the annual energy use of 80 million U.S. homes. Download a fact sheet about our REDD work in Brazil.
Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Haroldo Palo Jr.(Sunset over the Amazon); Michael Giannechini (Amazon flower); Ana Garcia (Toucan).
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