Posted on October, 28 2011

One in ten known species on Earth lives in the Amazon. Its forests contain 90-140 billion metric tons of carbon, the release of even a portion of which would accelerate global warming significantly.

Over 30 million people living in the Amazon depend on its resources and services – not to mention many millions more living as far away as North America, Europe, Asia and Africa, but still within the Amazon’s far-reaching climatic influence.



Rapidly expanding global markets for meat, soy and others, and the imminent realization of large-scale transportation and energy infrastructure projects coupled with poor planning are contributing to deforestation and increased pressure on the natural resources and environmental services upon which millions of people depend. Increased temperatures and decreased precipitation caused by global warming will exacerbate these trends.

Although WWF’s presence in the region has been key to many conservation results over the years, it is with the articulation of the Living Amazon Initiative in 2008 that WWF has been able to bring together 40 years of experience as part of a unified front to address the challenges to the Amazon Biome as a whole.

Over the next years WWF will develop far reaching and powerful partnerships with governments, civil society, and the private sector to promote the transformational processes needed to foster a common vision for 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.