Improving resilience and halting biodiversity loss in the Greater Amazon Basin
Implemented with the support of LVMH
The Amazon Biosphere Reserves Project seeks to stop the degradation of forested areas, conserve biodiversity and ecosystems and support alternative livelihoods for communities and Indigenous Peoples.
Since 2021, this project has supported more than 42 initiatives aiming to regenerate ecosystems and develop sustainable employment opportunities for local communities, combining scientific knowledge with local and indigenous knowledge in order to reduce negative impacts on biodiversity and improve resilience to climate change. The project supports place-based initiatives to promote sustainable production and resource management, improve territorial governance, and support added value of socio-biodiversity products.
The Amazonian biosphere reserves provide a framework that reconciles conservation and sustainable use. The UNESCO biosphere reserves network in the region enables knowledge sharing to conserve biodiversity across the Basin, including key threatened species such as giant arapaima fish, the Amazonian manatee, the black caiman and river dolphins.
In parallel of strengthening the coordination and governance within the designated sites, the Amazon Biosphere Reserves Project is reinforcing the development and launch of Youth Networks engaging young leaders and representatives in the management and decision-making of their biosphere reserves.
UNESCO allowed us to meet young people coming from different communities within the reserve (Indigenous, riverside, countryside, cities). We soon began to get to know each other, talk about each other's realities, exchange knowledge and soon we were promoting training for other young protagonists with a focus on preserving the forest and the cultures that exist here and reforestation of degraded areas. We had training on firefighting and the development of environmental awareness in our communities. The Youth Network opened new perspectives for me, so I decided to study Agroecology at the State University of Amazonas.
We are having a beautiful experience with the Amazon Project, that helped us restructure the reserve management committee, by renovating the rangers monitoring camp and giving us access to Wi-Fi, so we can communicate better. We also had access to training and financial support for projects, such as chocolate production and the distribution of thousands of seedlings, which helped with reforestation and the local production chain.
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Partner
This project is the result of an effective partnership with the private sector.
It is implemented with LVMH, UNESCO’s top private partner for biodiversity initiatives.
