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Andes-Amazon Initiative

Snapshot

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Outcome:

Increase the size, quality and durability of the protected area systems of the Amazon Basin.

 

Geography:  

The Amazon Basin and the adjacent forests of the Guiana Shield, an area spread across eight countries: Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and one territory, French Guiana. The Amazon Basin, as defined by our Initiative, consists not only of the Amazon watershed, but also includes the eastern slope of the Andes and the contiguous forest that extends northward from Brazil through the Guiana Shield and upper Orinoco drainage of Venezuela. Together, this area encompasses 815 million hectares (a little more than 2 billion acres) of tropical terrestrial and aquatic environment.

 

Strategies:
  • Protected Area Creation & Effective Management / Create new protected areas and support the basic effective management of new and existing protected areas
  • Science / Develop and refine scientific basis for conservation
  • Capacity Building / Increase human and institutional capacity for conservation
  • Policy and Economics / Promote conservation appropriate policies and industry best-practices
  • Finance for Sustainability / Develop long-term financing mechanisms to sustain the protected area systems’ recurring costs
  • Frontier Consolidation

Andes-Amazon Map 2

Initiative Overview

The Andes-Amazon is the world’s largest river basin and is the source of one-fifth of Earth’s fresh water. It is also the most abundant wilderness on the planet, supporting the world’s highest diversity of birds and concentration of primate diversity, one-third of all freshwater fish species, and more than 60,000 plant species, half of which are endemic varieties not found elsewhere. Today, nearly 20 percent of the intact forest in the Amazon Basin has been lost to logging, cattle ranching, mining, agriculture, and infrastructure development. Current statistics suggest that up to 9,000 square miles of forest are lost every year.

 

The Andes-Amazon Initiative’s goal is to conserve the Amazonian forests, which provide habitat for biodiversity and regulate the regional climate cycle. To achieve this goal, through the Foundation’s funds and the work of its Grantees, the Initiative must effectively manage 370 million hectares of forested landscapes. Protecting these areas will lead to the:

  • Maintenance of the climatologic function of the Amazon Basin, as measured by forest cover distributed among the six climate zones
  • Protection of Amazonian biodiversity, as measured by the distribution of forested habitat among the eight  major ecoregions and 13 major watersheds

Initiative strategies include creating and consolidating an appropriate set of protected areas, building capacity among local organizations and decision-makers, stimulating appropriate policy, and securing long-term financing to maintain the protected areas. The approach of the Andes-Amazon Initiative is unique in that it is the first to attempt to preserve climate function and biodiversity simultaneously. This is achievable because most protected areas house both the biodiversity needed to maintain the ecosystem and a representative extension of the ecosystem itself, which in turn helps preserve climate function.

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