EarthTalk – How do conservationists promote reforestation in the Amazon?

Title card for the EarthTalk environmental column showing a green glass globe.

Roddy Scheer & Doug Moss

Dear EarthTalk:How are conservationists encouraging reforestation in the Amazon?Peter Smyth, Tempe, AZ

The Amazon Rainforest covers eight million kilometers of land and spans nine countries across South America, making it the world’s largest rainforest. The Amazon is home to 400 billion trees, contributing greatly to global carbon storage and climate regulation. In addition, 10 percent of the Earth’s known species live in the Amazon, which also provides essential food and medicine to nearby communities. Despite such overwhelming benefits, the Amazon is gradually becoming barren land. According to Global Citizen, a leading international advocacy organization, 20 percent of the rainforest has been lost to mining, forest fires, agricultural expansion, land grabbing, and cattle ranching in the past 50 years.

Indigenous communities have taken on initiatives to reforest and preserve the Amazon. Farmers have integrated agroforestry systems, a method of sustainable farming that preserves biodiversity. Local-led ecotourism is another way communities have worked to protect the Amazon’s acreage. Sani Warmi, a Kichwa indigenous women’s organization in Sani Isla, Ecuador, operates the Sani Lodge and leads traditional cooking and craft lessons for tourists, protecting 76,600 forest acres. And the U.S.-based Alliance for a Sustainable Amazon works with locals in Peru to re-plant native land species.

Others, like Brazilian parachutist Luigi Cani, have made it their mission to revitalize barren parts of the Amazon. In 2022, Cani completed his “100 Million Seeds Amazon Project” by skydiving while scattering seeds across parts of the Amazon. “... the seeds were released precisely where we wanted them to be,” he says. “We need huge changes to make the world better than it is today. The possibility for growth is incredible, but more people need to be willing to learn and work together.” The seeds germinated at a rate of 95 percent, making the project a successful and eye-catching demonstration of individual activism.

There are also larger global strategies protecting the Amazon. The Brazilian government launched the Amazon Fund, which has raised over $1.4 billion dollars from contributing countries across the world. And experts are improving technology to monitor deforestation. The Colombian Amazon is being observed by an AI-powered satellite and drones to prevent illegal deforestation.

Readers interested in helping to reforest the Amazon, you can support Amazon Rainforest preservation organizations such as the Alliance for a Sustainable Amazon by donating on their website.