Brazilian Amazon Rainforest | Photo Spirit
The Opportunity
The answer is to halt deforestation. And the time to do that is now. More specifically, we must protect as many acres as possible before the end of 2026, when Brazil’ s political landscape could change in ways that once again accelerate deforestation.
Brazil is important because approximately 60 % of the Amazon rainforest lies within its borders, and roughly 29 % of that is largely intact, owned by the government, but not currently protected. This is by far the single largest area of intact, unprotected tropical rainforest in the world.
Right now, we have an extraordinary— but brief— opportunity to protect a significant amount of this landscape. This is entirely due to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’ s current president. During his previous term as president, Lula supported numerous policies and strategies to reduce deforestation within the Amazon. His policies and efforts resulted in an incredible 80 % decline in deforestation between 2005-2012. But when his term ended, deforestation rebounded, with 2.9 million acres destroyed in 2022 alone.
When Lula returned to office for one final four-year term as president in 2023, we knew we had to act with speed and ambition. His return to office presented an unexpected opportunity to protect many of those government-controlled but unprotected acres before another administration— perhaps one that would lead to increased deforestation— took control. The four years of his term would perhaps be our last best opportunity to save the Amazon rainforest.
To maximize our impact during these four short years, we launched our Amazon Strategy and the Brazilian Amazon Fund, to raise funds to support our goals for the region. Those goals were and are truly ambitious, but saving the Amazon requires nothing less. With our Amazon Strategy, we committed to raising $ 40M by the end of 2026 to support the protection of 20 million acres within the Amazon and a few select adjacent regions— because the health of one ecosystem supports that of its neighbors.
The results of our Amazon Strategy will impact the entire planet. By safeguarding these 20 million acres, we will help pull the Amazon rainforest back from its tipping point, ensure approximately 6 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalents remain safely stored within the forest’ s biomass, and protect the homes of more than 150 threatened species and approximately 150,000 Indigenous people.
Time is limited and the urgency is real. Lula leaves office in 2026, and land protection projects often require time to achieve success. Already, we have raised more than $ 24M and begun work to protect more than 13.9 million acres, with several more exciting projects in development. With your support, we can do even more, ultimately seeking to protect 20 million acres— or more— of the Amazon rainforest before the end of 2026.
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