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© Zig Koch / WWF Living Amazon Initiative
The extraordinary Amazon
No other place on Earth showcases the diversity of life like the Amazon. It’s a vast region that spans across eight countries and one overseas territory: Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana/ France.

In the Amazon Biome you will find:
  • One in ten known species on Earth
  • The world´s largest remaining tropical forest containing 90-140 billion metric tons of carbon, the release of even a portion of which would accelerate global warming significantly
  • The largest river basin on the planet  with one million km2 of freshwater ecosystems

And 34 million people living in the Amazon, including 385 indigenous groups, depend on its resources and services – not to mention many millions more living as far away as Latin America, North America, and Europe, but still within the Amazon’s far-reaching climatic influence.

For these and many other reasons the Amazon also inspires action, and WWF has for many years sought to address challenges and implement solutions in a region so important to all of us. WWF has more than 40 years of experience focused on protecting the Amazon region. The forces that shape the Amazon extend far beyond a local context and know no political boundaries, and WWF uses its presence across the world to protect the Amazon as a whole, to enhance biodiversity conservation and to address and reduce human impact on the Amazon’s critical habitat.
For these and many other reasons the Amazon also inspires action, and WWF has for many years sought to address challenges and implement solutions in a region so important to all of us. WWF has more than 40 years of experience focused on protecting the Amazon region. The forces that shape the Amazon extend far beyond a local context and know no political boundaries, and WWF uses its presence across the world to protect the Amazon as a whole, to enhance biodiversity conservation and to address and reduce human impact on the Amazon’s critical habitat.
 

Our vision

An ecologically healthy Amazon Biome that maintains its environmental and cultural contribution to local peoples, the countries of the region, and the world, within a framework of social equity, inclusive economic development, and global responsibility.


 


WE INVITE YOU

© WWF Living Amazon Initiative

To review this report which outlines the current status of the Amazon, summarizes key pressures and agents of change and presents a few priorities for conservation action in the Amazon biome for the next decade. Join us to help make the Amazon regional approach a reality!

WWF Goals
  • The diversity of terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems of the Amazon Biome is conserved to ensure the survival of the species that live there and the continued provision of environmental goods and services to local peoples, the countries of the region, and the world.
 
  • The quality, quantity, and timing of flow regimes in priority rivers and their headwaters are maintained at levels that ensure the integrity of aquatic ecosystems and the continued provision of ecological services that sustain local livelihoods and regional economies.
 
  • The region’s political and institutional framework supports the implementation of a climate-adaptive conservation and development agenda that increases the resilience of the Amazon Biome’s key ecological process and services.