Tropical forests are home to the highest concentrations of biodiversity in the world. The Amazon forest itself may be home to an estimated 30% of all species. It also serves as a central pump of the global water cycle. Evapotranspiration from the Amazon forest creates flying rivers that drive water cycles around the world, including its own hydration. The average drop of water falls on the forest five or six times before it is washed out to sea.
On the verge of a deforestation tipping point, the Amazon forest is at risk of drying out and burning away. The scourge of deforestation undermines the water cycle, creates local droughts and accelerates feedback loops which are drying out the forest. According to the Global Safety Net analysis, 85% of the Amazon biome is vital for both biodiversity conservation and the global climate system, given that the region locks away an estimated 150 billion tons of carbon. Moreover, a landmark study from 2024 concluded that reforesting 5% of the Amazon is urgently needed to prevent the forest from collapsing into a dry grassland ecosystem, a process which would release gigatons of carbon, cause new pandemics, drive mass migration, and lead to global food insecurity. Climate models suggest that parts of the Western United States could lose up to 50% of precipitation if we lose the Amazon. The world has a clear interest in securing the ecological integrity of the region. Time is running out.
As a transnational product of nature, the Amazon suffers from the tragedy of the commons. The region is beset with drug trafficking, illegal deforestation and other issues with the rule of law, which have thwarted protection of the Amazon as a global priority.
Much deforestation is driven by illegal logging, often facilitated by bribery, falsified permits, and willful institutional blindness. According to the World Wildlife Fund, illegal logging accounts for 15%–30% of global timber production and up to 50%–90% in many tropical countries. A joint report by the United Nations Environment Programme and Interpol found that organized crime networks are responsible for up to 90% of logging in key tropical regions, using tactics such as bribery, permit fraud, and even hacking government systems to launder illegal timber.
In Indonesia, Global Witness found that nearly 40% of sampled palm oil mills supplying major international traders were linked to environmental destruction, land rights violations, or attacks on land and environmental defenders. Meanwhile, the Forest Peoples Programme in Indonesia and Amazonia 2030 in Brazil have documented how legal frameworks and political systems often enable land grabs and the issuance of concessions on indigenous territories without consent. These systemic failures not only drive illegal deforestation but also deny forest-dependent communities their rights and livelihoods.
At the global level the Forest and Climate Leaders Partnership helps governments work together to implement solutions that reduce forest loss, increase restoration and support sustainable development, and to ensure accountability for the pledges that have been made. In South America, since 1995, the nine countries of the Amazon have worked together through the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization to promote the welfare of the region. In collaboration with leading donor governments, the Amazon Fund was created in 2018 to channel financial resources to forest allies. The funding, unfortunately, is inadequate to date.
Fortunately, the forest is worth more alive and standing than cut and burned. This suggests that a shift in economic priorities in the region could elevate forest protection-and-regeneration economies over deforestation. Economic projections by groups like the Amazon Investor Coalition suggest that by replacing cattle and soy monocultures with agroforestry, we could increase local earnings by 1000% while sequestering carbon, replenishing water cycles and restoring biodiversity. Fortunately, these numbers have attracted the attention of industry and the Amazon bioeconomy is growing in both scale and prominence, yet the philanthropic footprint in the region continues to lag far behind the need. A 2020 report suggested that private philanthropy in the Amazon, up to that year, amounted to about $100 million per year, or about one ten-thousandth of global philanthropy. This is inadequate considering the global significance of the Amazon region.
The 30th COP under the UNFCCC will come to Belem, Brazil, in the Amazon this year. A breakthrough in political will is needed to drive approval of proposals like the $125 billion Tropical Forest Forever Facility which could help to secure the ecological integrity of the Amazon and other tropical forests once and for all.
| Founded in 2006, the Climate and Land Use Alliance is a collaborative of 6 foundations and is one of the leading grantmakers providing support for tropical forests. Forests, People, Climate is an important player as well, mobilizing over $700 million to date. |