Wildlife

Huge Swath of Amazon Preserved in Record-Setting Deal

On May 21, the Brazilian government, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and partners announced the creation of a $215 million fund to ensure long-term protection of the world's largest network of protected areas — 150 million acres of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest.

Thanks to an innovative long-term financing model, 150 million acres will be protected permanently, which amounts to fifteen percent of the Brazilian Amazon. That's equivalent to three times the size of all U.S. national parks combined.

Conservation groups been working on this with the government of Brazil and partners for more than a decade, and there already are almost 100 protected areas encompassing 128 million acres. These were selected based on the rich and unique diversity of habitats and species found there. Half of them are strict conservation areas, some appropriate for tourists, others only for biological research. The others are sustainable-use areas where local people can harvest natural resources, such as rubber or nuts.

The conservation value of that amount of protected areas is cause for celebration in and of itself. But what's truly groundbreaking is its funding mechanism.

An unprecedented number of partners created an extraordinary $215 million transition fund to help the Brazilian government manage the protected areas for the next 25 years. During that time, Brazil gradually will increase its own contributions with the intention of establishing permanent financing as the money in the transition fund draws down.

This deal comes at a critical time. When you think of the Amazon, you may imagine only a wild and remote region. But development is creeping in to this important wilderness, and it's already starting to change. These protected areas are vital to ensure that species, like those spider monkeys I studied, have plenty of forest habitat, and to safeguard natural resources.