Amazon

Each year, the Amazon loses thousands of square miles of forested area. Agricultural expansion, ranching, infrastructure projects, energy exploration, and illegal logging are to blame. We address the following:

• Soy farming: WWF works with the Soy Roundtable—made up of soy producers, processors, and exporters—to improve the sustainability of the participants’ practices and minimize the impact on the Amazon and its wildlife. WWF is also a part of the collaborative group of NGOs behind the Soy Moratorium, a voluntary agreement between transnational trading companies, soy producers, and civil society in Brazil to ban the conversion of Amazon forests to soy after 2006, which drastically reduced deforestation for soy cultivation in the region. This was a critical first step toward taking deforestation and conversion out of soy supply chains, though more work is needed to avoid leakage of this issue to nearby ecosystems like the Cerrado savanna and Chaco woodlands.
  
• Cattle ranching: WWF works with the beef industry to create standards that increase efficiency and reduce waste. This includes educating ranchers about why it is not necessary to convert more forests into pasture to increase profits. WWF works through the Global and US Beef Roundtables to develop principles and criteria that increase the productivity of existing cattle ranches and prevent the establishment of new ranches in high conservation value forests. Beginning with support from the Moore Foundation and now with an additional grant from the Tapestry Foundation, WWF is also working with brands and tanneries around the world to develop deforestation- and conversion-free sources of hides coming from South America, catalyzing efforts to ensure that hides don’t come from deforested land.
  
• Hydropower: Improperly sited dams can have significant impacts on fisheries, wildlife, and people who depend upon them. WWF supports low-carbon, low-cost, and low-conflict energy sources, particularly through energy scenario planning that considers alternative development options and siting of needed energy infrastructure in locations that minimize impacts on people and nature.
  
• Illegal and unsustainable logging: High demand for timber products, weak laws, and poorly implemented trade rules lead to logging that destroys nature. WWF works to create market conditions that conserve the world’s forests but also provide economic and social benefits for businesses and people. To do so, WWF works to strengthen the US government’s ability to prosecute illegal timber cases; stop illegal logging in countries that export high volumes of timber; and ensure full implementation of the Lacey Act, a US law that prohibits illegal timber and timber products from entering the US market.
• Infrastructure: In Colombia, WWF partnered with the government to create participatory, ecologically sustainable road development processes. In February 2021, the government of Colombia announced the Green Road Infrastructure (GRI) Guidelines, a set of national government guidelines for building sustainable and resilient road transport infrastructure. The Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, WWF-Colombia, and the Colombian NGO Foundation for Conservation and Sustainable Development collaborated to design the guidelines. The guidelines are a major achievement for the people of Colombia and the Amazon, taking into consideration the needs of local people as well as the health of this critical region.
  

Regional and global demand for natural resources, including timber and fish, can be met without devastating the environment. We work with agriculture and timber sectors to eliminate waste and increase production efficiency. 

We also seek to promote demand for sustainable forest products. WWF engages local Indigenous communities and governments to manage protected areas and supports local communities’ ability to earn a living sustainably. For example, as part of the US Agency for International Development-funded Amazon Indigenous Rights and Resources (AIRR) project, WWF is focused on encouraging the development and scaling of Indigenous enterprises based on the sustainable use of forest products, fisheries management, and aquaculture.  And in a protected area in Bolivia, WWF supports training and organic certification for sustainable Brazil nut harvesting.