- Conserve the Amazon’s land and freshwater ecosystems to ensure species survive, and continue providing the environmental goods and services to the people that live there.
- Maintain the quality and quantity of the Amazon's priority rivers to ensure the integrity of aquatic ecosystems and the ecological services that support local livelihoods and regional economies.
- Protect forest cover, which is important to maintaining rainfall and regulating climate regionally and globally.
WWF's Vision for the Amazon
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What WWF is doing
WWF is working in the Amazon region with government authorities, local and indigenous communities, non-governmental organizations, the private sector and others to protect large parts of the Amazon and its unique biodiversity and ecological functions and services. This is being achieved through:- Promoting the responsible use of natural resources and sustainable management
- Ensuring environmental and social standards for infrastructure development, particularly road and dam projects
- Developing national programmes for reducing emissions from deforestation
- Consolidating and expanding protected areas
The world’s largest tropical forest conservation programme
The Amazon Region Protected Areas (ARPA) - created in 2002 by the Brazilian government in partnership with WWF, Brazilian Biodiversity Fund, German Development Bank, Global Environment Facility and World Bank - is a 10-year programme aimed increasing protection of the Amazon.
By 2008, 25.3 million hectares of new parks and reserves were created in the Brazilian Amazon under ARPA, among them the 3.88 million-hectare Tumucumaque Mountains National Park, one of the world's largest national parks. In its second phase from 2009 to 2012, ARPA expects to create another 20 million hectares of new protected areas.
Building on the success of ARPA, WWF is also looking to help establish a Pan-Amazonian protected area programme that will extend the network of protected areas into the other Amazonian countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.
By 2008, 25.3 million hectares of new parks and reserves were created in the Brazilian Amazon under ARPA, among them the 3.88 million-hectare Tumucumaque Mountains National Park, one of the world's largest national parks. In its second phase from 2009 to 2012, ARPA expects to create another 20 million hectares of new protected areas.
Building on the success of ARPA, WWF is also looking to help establish a Pan-Amazonian protected area programme that will extend the network of protected areas into the other Amazonian countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.