Amazonia

The largest tropical forest on Earth generates its own weather, stores up to 140 billion tons of carbon, and sustains 20 million Indigenous Peoples. Re:wild and partners are working to restore and protect it.

Amazonia is not just one rainforest.

It spans all or part of nine countries, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela, and French Guiana, and is one of the world's five designated High Biodiversity Wilderness Areas.

It is home to an extraordinary and still incompletely catalogued array of life. The Amazon River system is the largest on Earth. The forest stores up to 140 billion tons of carbon and plays a critical role in water cycles and weather patterns across the entire continent.

It is also home to an estimated 20 million Indigenous Peoples from more than 350 groups, several of whom still live in voluntary isolation. For these communities, this is not a conservation priority. It is home, and it has been for generations.

In 2024, Re:wild and partners contributed to assessments of over 116 million acres in Pará and Amazonas alone.

The scale of the conservation challenge in Amazonia is matched only by the scale of what Re:wild and partners are doing about it. In 2024, we worked alongside the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, the Ministry of the Environment, local NGOs, and Indigenous associations to advance protection across some of the most critical and threatened stretches of the Amazon.

Defending 88 million acres of Indigenous lands

Re:wild worked with approximately 50 local Indigenous associations to strengthen territorial protection and implement fire prevention across over 88 million acres of Indigenous lands in 2024.

We also initiated support for the declaration and physical demarcation of 3.7 million acres of new Indigenous territories, securing legal recognition and ensuring these lands remain under the stewardship of their rightful guardians.

The Southern Amazon Shield, an ambitious initiative to protect over 13 million acres in the south of Pará, is taking shape. Re:wild acquired over 4,700 acres of land for future conversion into protected areas and is leading the creation of the Center for Amazon Conservation Excellence, a hub for environmental monitoring, law enforcement, and fire prevention.

Protecting the world's largest tropical wetland

The Pantanal sits at the southern edge of Amazonia and faces intensifying threats from cattle ranching and wildfires driven by climate change.

Re:wild played a leading role in creating the Pantanal Alliance, a coalition of 10 funders and local partners working with state and federal government to protect over 600,000 acres through the expansion and establishment of new protected areas. In 2024, we supported the acquisition of approximately 17,550 acres, with more to follow.

The goal is straightforward: double the protected area in the Pantanal. The political conditions to do it are better now than they have been in decades. Re:wild is moving fast to take advantage of that window.