In 2009, help the Conservancy protect South America's lands and waters for people and for nature. Learn more about The Nature Conservancy's work across South America.

Argentina: New Horizons
Early in 2008, the Conservancy opened its first office in Argentina, in the Andean town of San Carlos de Bariloche. The office now serves as the hub of the Conservancy’s efforts to protect the temperate grasslands of the country’s Patagonian region, where we work with local partners to effect conservation on public and private lands and to facilitate sustainable sheep ranching initiatives.

Bolivia: Forests for people

Having helped protect 13 million acres of Bolivian forests—an area larger than Switzerland—since its inception in 2003, the Conservancy and USAID's BOLFOR II Sustainable Forestry Management project came to a close this year. Local people saw a significant increase in their forestry related incomes and the forests' plants and animals are as healthy as they've ever been.

Brazil: On the path to planting a billion
In April of 2008, the Conservancy launched an ambitious campaign to restore one billion native trees to Brazil's highly endangered Atlantic Forest, of which just 7 percent remains. Conservancy supporters spent the year donating one dollar at a time to help us achieve this worthy goal, and the Conservancy and partners have planted more than one million trees in the Atlantic Forest so far.

Chile: Sustaining a chain of marine life
The Conservancy helped leverage more $30 million from the Global Environmental Facility, national governments, other non-profits, universities and the private sector to help protect South America's Humboldt Current--a blue biological highway that transports whales, dolphins, seals and penguins on their Pacific journey northward up the coasts of Chile, Peru and southern Ecuador. 

Colombia: Implementing investment strategies to protect fresh water

In April 2008, the Conservancy and partners launched the Bogotá Water Fund to raise $60 million over the next ten years through voluntary contributions that will finance conservation of tropical Andean forests in Colombia. These forests line watersheds that supply 8 million people in Bogotá with drinking water and also provide critical habitat for spectacled bears and Andean condors.

Ecuador: Legalizing an indigenous legacy in the Amazon

The Conservancy backed Ecuador’s Cofán indigenous group in its successful quest to acquire proper title to 75,000 acres of lands they’ve lived on for centuries. For over 50 years, the Cofán have fought to attain legal ownership of these lands, but oil and gold interests have traditionally won out. Indigenous lands comprise 20% of the Amazon Basin, and are typically far better preserved than lands outside indigenous territories.

Paraguay: Permanent protection in world's largest wetland

27,000 hectares of the Paraguayan Pantanal were recently placed under permanent protection thanks to a recent purchase by Conservancy partner, Guyra Paraguay. The purchased land will become private reserves in the buffer zone of the Rio NegroNational Park, near the intersection of the Paraguayan, Brazilian and Bolivian borders.

Peru: Establishment of a new protected areas department

A working group spearheaded by the Conservancy helped shape the establishment of a new protected areas department, now being incorporated into the Peruvian government’s new Ministry of Environment. The Conservancy and its partners are now helping strengthen Peru’s parks system, which spans Andean peaks, tropical forests in the Amazon Basin, and the cold waters of the Humboldt Current.

Venezuela: Waging a national war on invasives
The Conservancy worked with Venezuela’s Ministry of Environment to incorporate the fight against invasive species into the country’s conservation legislation. Because Venezuela’s Biological Diversity Law now acknowledges the serious threat posed by invasive plants and animals—the second leading cause of biodiversity loss worldwide—the country can develop policies to eradicate them.