WWF Celebrates Historic Victory In Amazon Conservation

Last month, the Government of Brazil, the WWF and its partners announced the creation of a US$215 million fund that is designed to help ensure the long term protection of the largest network of protected areas in the world coming in at 150 million acres of Brazilian Amazon rainforest.

Conservationists rarely ever get to celebrate such a big win and the outcome is truly deserving of international attention.

The victory is in large part as a result of a long term financing model. 150 million acres of pristine Amazon rainforest will be permanently protected which amounts to approximately 15 per cent of the entire Brazilian Amazon. The amount of land being protected is equivalent to three times the size of all US national parks combined.

The WWF has been working with Brazil’s government and other partners for over ten years and is responsible for creating 100 protected areas comprising 128 million acres. The areas are selected on the basis of their unique diversity of habitats. Half of the areas are strictly for conservation with some appropriate for tourism, whilst others are only suitable for biological research.

Whilst the conservation value is cause for celebration in it of itself what is truly pioneering is the funding mechanism.

An extraordinary $215 million transition fund was created by an unprecedented number of partners that will help the government of Brazil to help manage the protected areas for the next 25 years. Over that period, Brazil itself will gradually increase its own contributions with the stated intent of establishing permanent financing as the transition fund draws down.

So how did it all happen?

Brazil established the Amazon Region Protected Area (APRA) program in 2002 with the aim of continuing its commitment of protecting at least 10 per cent of its rainforest which is made in 1998. The commitment was made in response to growing concern over the future of the country’s rainforest. The key challenge all conservation programs face however is how to obtain financing over the long term.

10 years later, WWF combined with Brazil’s government and the Brazilian Biodiversity Fund, Larry Linden a former Goldman Sachs partner and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation all came together to produce the a long term funding plan. Last month the deal closed and the permanent funding model is now a reality.

The deal comes at a crucial time. Many people imagine the Amazon to be a wild and remote region, however development is gradually encroaching this important wilderness and is already starting to change it. These protected areas are critical to ensure endangered species have plenty of natural habitat.

ARPA is now in a position to achieve its ultimate goal and contribute towards protecting a part of the world that helps regulate the planet’s climate and contains on in ten known species and is called home by over 30 million people, which is cause for celebration.