Improving resilience and halting biodiversity loss in the Greater Amazon Basin
Implemented with the support of LVMH
The Amazon Biosphere Reserves Project encompasses 8 UNESCO-designated Amazon Biosphere Reserves in Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, covering 30 million hectares and home to 1.3 million people who share similar biodiversity challenges. This project seeks to halt the degradation of forest areas, conserve biodiversity and ecosystems, and support alternative livelihoods for communities and Indigenous Peoples.
Since 2021, this project has supported more than 42 initiatives aimed at regenerating ecosystems and developing 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 the added value of socio-biodiversity products.
8 Amazon Biosphere Reserves designated by UNESCO
The Amazon Biosphere Reserves project provides a framework that reconciles conservation and sustainable use. The UNESCO biosphere reserves network in the region enables knowledge sharing to conserve biodiversity throughout the basin, including key threatened species such as the giant arapaima fish, the Amazonian manatee, black caiman and river dolphins.
In parallel of strengthening coordination and governance within the designated sites, the Amazon Biosphere Reserves Project is reinforcing the development and implementation of Youth Networks that involve young leaders and representatives in the management and decision-making of their biosphere reserves.
Artwork “Amazonium” by eco-artist Thijs Biersteker
Amazonium is a sculpture created by artist Thijs Biersteker and sponsored by LVMH. This sculpture represents deforestation through its up and down movements, exemplifying what is a healthy forest and what is a deforested forest. Likewise, the sculpture not only represents deforestation, but as the artist mentions, this artwork can also show reforestation, and how the forest can only come back if we protect it.
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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.
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.
UNESCO allowed us to meet young people from different communities within the reserve (indigenous, riverside, countryside, cities). Once we got to know each other, we talked about each other's realities, exchanged knowledge and promoted the training for other young actors with the aim of preserving the forest and the cultures that exist here and reforesting of degraded areas. We were trained in fire fighting 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.