Letter: Claudio Maretti, Living Amazon Initiative Leader

Posted on December, 22 2014

Dear Amazon Friends,

2014 has been very productive and intense for us and I am sure also for those who are committed to the conservation of the Pan-Amazon at WWF or other organizations and institutions from different sectors.

This year Living Amazon Initiative (LAI) has started, with our partners, the implementation of three projects.

Under WWF Living Amazon Strategy dealing with Protected Areas and Indigenous Territories, these projects aim to: implement the Amazon Conservation Vision (led by RedParques – the Latin American network of national protected areas authorities, with our strong support); understand the climate vulnerability and establish protected areas as an integral part of climate change adaptation strategies (as a climate adaptation component of the Amazon Conservation Vision); and experiment, through implementing pilot cases, and strengthen the Amazon Indigenous REDD+ mechanism, led by COICA (the pan-Amazon indigenous peoples coordination).

Two field expeditions to access the potential impacts of hydropower dams on biodiversity in the Tapajós river basin were organised. The ‘Migratory Fish of the Juruena River Expedition’, to understand the related fish population dynamics, was held in May. The ‘Tapajos River Dolphin Expedition’, with Mamirauá Institute for Sustainable Development, to register the distribution of Amazon River dolphin species and estimate their abundance in the Tapajos River Basin, was finished in August. We were also proud to have received 30 researchers with different and complementary knowledge in order to discuss the trends and impacts of the aquatic ecosystem fragmentation in the Pan-Amazon, an important collaboration that is the basis for a report to be launch next year during the World Water Forum (April 2015, in Korea).

In the World Parks Congress (WPC), we promoted dialogues among sectors about the importance of the ecological representation, indigenous peoples and local communities’ rights and the role of protected areas and indigenous territories in the Amazon. WWF Colombia presented the case of the Tri-national project, with Colombian, Peruvian and Ecuadorian governments and local communities, with its own results huge relevance, but also as a pilot highlighting the importance of the transboundary approach on the Amazon conservation. The Brazilian Government, with WWF Brazil and other partners, informed about the advances of the huge ‘ARPA for Life Initiative’, and the Peruvian Amazon, with WWF-Peru and partners, launched an initiative to secure sustainable funding for the Peruvian protected areas. The WPC is the most important gathering of protected areas experts and other stakeholders.

In the road to UNFCCC CoP-20, we supported and engaged in the dissemination of the Amazon Climate Future, prepared by the researcher Antonio Donato Nobre for the Amazonian Regional Articulation (ARA), due to our partnership in the Pan-Amazon approach, including related to climate change. This report has had very interesting and important direct impact and indirect repercussion on traditional media and social media channels. Heightening the importance of the Amazon biome for the climate regulation at the CoP-20, WWF Living Amazon Initiative presented its preliminary findings of ‘Situation and Future Trends of Deforestation in the Pan-Amazon’ during the event ‘La COP 20: Perspectivas desde el Sur’ (‘CoP-20: Southern Perspectives’), organized by the Antonio Ruiz de Montoya University, in response to the demands and interests of the ecumenical Peruvian movement to the Cop-20 and the Latin-American Association of Jesuit Universities (AUSJAL).

In both the World Parks Congress and the UNFCCC CoP-20, WWF LAI and offices also participated in a series of others debates related to the interest of Pan-Amazon conservation and sustainable development, such as the ones related to indigenous peoples’ rights, territories and funding, protected areas importance in climate change mitigation and adaptation, REDD+ etc., with RedParques, COICA, ARA, Peruvian and other Amazon governments, non-governmental and science-based partners, etc.

To support our work, we launched three publications: ‘Construcción de una Estrategia para Manejo Holístico de Territorios de Vida Plena en la Cuenca Amazónica’ (‘Building a Strategy for a Holistic Management of Territories for an Complete Indigenous Life in the Amazon’); ‘Valoración de los servicios ecosistémicos como herramienta para la toma de decisiones’ (‘Valuation of Ecosystem Services as a Decision Support Tool’) and ‘The State of the Amazon: Ecological Representation in Protected Areas and Indigenous Territories’. You can read and download the publications in Spanish at http://bit.ly/1E3wdwQ or in English at http://bit.ly/1l8hkwN

All this was only possible with the strong support from several different partners and collaborators, passionate for the Amazon Biome.

2015 is coming with more new challenges. As some of the highlights, we advance the importance of mapping finance flows stakeholders and applying the conclusions to better dialogues for a better Amazon. We plan to have important discussions with stakeholders interested in the health of Amazon rivers and basins. Our perspectives also indicate the understanding of the need for a Pan-Amazon vision by governmental integrated policies and private and finance sectors sustainable standards, with the science and human rights informing more the policy and business decisions.

We thank you for your support in 2014 wishing a 2015 full of achievements in protecting and maintaining an ecologically healthy Amazon Biome in benefit of the region and its people, the Amazon countries, the South American continent and the world.

Claudio Maretti, Leader of the WWF Living Amazon (Global) Initiative

Cláudio Maretti

© Richard Stonehouse

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