This year marks the Moore Foundation’s 25th anniversary. To commemorate this milestone, we launched a symposia series exploring five mission-driven themes. These events offer a chance to reflect on the progress of the past 25 years — and, more importantly, to envision the opportunities that lie ahead.
Fittingly, our first symposium focused on Amazonia.
Spanning eight countries and one territory, the Amazon — Earth’s largest remaining rainforest — stretches from the eastern slopes of the Andes to the Atlantic Ocean. With a relatively low human population density, it provides one-fifth of the world’s fresh water and is home to the planet’s most diverse collection of birds, mammals, freshwater fish and plants. Its standing forests help mitigate global climate change.
In 2003, when the foundation first launched the Andes-Amazon Initiative, we did so with the intent to “conserve the ecological viability and aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity of the basin.” To meet that goal, we estimated that 70% of the biome would need to be protected and managed effectively.
Good progress is being made on that target, more than 408 million hectares are under effective conservation management. It’s estimated that Indigenous territories and protected areas now cover nearly 50% of the Amazon biome. The expanded establishment of protected areas, the strengthening of Indigenous territorial governance, along with deepened collaborative efforts, philanthropic investment and scientific understanding, are having a meaningful and measurable impact in the region.
Central to the success of the past 25 years has been the broad recognition that we must view the Amazon as a complete system. Progress relies on the understanding of interdependencies across multiple jurisdictions and ecosystems, and a clarity that the conservation of the Amazon basin has both local and global ramifications.
Why 70 percent?
For more than 40 years, scientific research and understanding has reinforced the conservation paradigm that maintaining very large, contiguous reserves within the Amazon is necessary to avoid ecological collapse. For example, Thomas Lovejoy and Carlos Nobre, warned that if more than 20–25% of the Amazon is lost, the forest could reach a tipping point — where it can no longer sustain its own rainfall and begins to collapse. That’s why the foundation emphasizes the need to protect at least 70% of the biome to preserve its ecological function.
“The science remains clear,” said Avecita Chicchón, program director for the Andes-Amazon Initiative. “Bringing at least 70% of the Amazon forest cover and the freshwater ecosystems that sustain it, under effective management and conservation, is necessary to avoid an ecological tipping point with global ramifications.”
Following the established science, the foundation focuses on slowing deforestation and effectively pursuing that 70% target. To do so, we aim to tackle the problem at a biome-wide scale. More than 20 years ago, we made a big bet to work across multiple countries and to consider the entire mosaic of possible land use categories — from national parks to Indigenous lands, from forest concessions to extractive reserves and conservation concessions.
Over the past two decades, our partners and grantees across the region have effectively slowed the rates of deforestation and destruction. Positive progress toward efforts that enable production without destruction is apparent, but threats remain.
Today, it is estimated that we’ve lost 17% of forest cover. We must continue to explore ways to conserve and strengthen the planet’s largest and most vital tropical forest and freshwater ecosystems.
Gathering experts and advisors
In May 2025, the foundation partnered with Permanent Seminar on Agrarian Research (SEPIA) to convene nearly 70 leaders in Lima, Peru for The Future of Amazonia.
Conservation experts, policymakers, Indigenous representatives, and civil society leaders came together to celebrate conservation achievements and discuss current challenges and opportunities for the Amazon biome. The event featured panels on the role of protected areas and Indigenous territories, governance, and territorial dynamics. It provided an opportunity to pause, evaluate emerging trends, and explore ways to prepare for and help meet challenges ahead.
Participants discussed the current state of the Amazon, with a focus on the region’s conservation challenges and opportunities. Key topics included illegal mining, organized crime, climate change, energy transition, and the importance of Indigenous Peoples’ rights and governance. The event emphasized the need for collaboration, innovative solutions, and scaling up conservation efforts to protect the Amazon biome and ensure the well-being of local communities.
Challenges ahead
Despite the notable progress, choices we make will have profound ramification on the future. The region faces both ongoing and emerging challenges that require thoughtful partnerships to defend existing progress and responsibly balance future needs.
Panelists spoke about the devastating threats posed by illegal gold mining, land trafficking and the drug trade. The rise of these illegal economies requires the expansion of partnerships that can enhance legal mechanisms required to support defenders.
Amazonia plays a critical role in global efforts to address the effects of climate change. It absorbs billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. And the growing interest in advancing the energy transition has global stakeholders interested in the region’s natural resources. It is becoming increasingly necessary to define environmental standards for the extraction of critical minerals and the creation of exclusion zones to safeguard the environment, if we want to ensure the Amazon remains a carbon sink, not a carbon emitter.
“We are facing transformations that are going to be very significant,” said Ana Carolina Gonzales, senior director of global programs at the Natural Resource Governance Institute. “Understanding what the risks and opportunities are, is crucial to making decisions that can, in some way, produce the expected development results; but they also have to be consensual decisions within public dialogue processes involving the citizens who are supposed to benefit.”
In addition, one of the most important drivers of degradation in the region is the creation of infrastructure that disturbs ecological connectivity and may establish social conditions that threaten local peoples’ livelihoods. In some cases, these projects are essential to local economies and livelihoods. However, it’s essential to find ways to decouple development from destruction through the establishment of environmental and social safeguards that will protect nature and people.
Addressing these challenges will require expanded public-private partnerships, strengthening of the governance and management of Indigenous territories, and innovation in funding mechanisms.
Opportunities for the future
Though the existing and emerging challenges are formidable, the progress and ongoing partnerships across the region demonstrate that success is possible. Science still indicates that bringing 70% of the Amazon biome under effective management is crucial to avoiding ecological collapse. Connecting protected areas and Indigenous territories to create biological corridors that ensure an integrated and resilient landscape is possible.
Doing so will require:
- Strengthening Indigenous governance. Indigenous Peoples are recognized as the best forest stewards. Securing their rights and governance and replicating their models will help us to create integrated and sustainable landscapes.
- Leveraging technology. Conservation requires effective data and good science. New technologies, such as satellite imaging and apps for monitoring forest loss, will help us monitor and address emerging threats to conservation.
- Engaging youth. Success will depend on engaging the next generation as advocates and leaders. Bringing urban youth into the forests and engaging them in conservation efforts will bring fresh perspectives and innovative solutions to the challenges ahead.
- Building strong partnerships. The joint work of Indigenous Peoples, scientists, government, civil society, and philanthropy has been instrumental in increasing effective management of protected areas and Indigenous territories. Collaboration and long-term partnerships are more important than ever.
“We are going to have to build a much bigger community to be able to bring different levels of expertise and different levels of engagement and commitment to making sure the Amazon is standing, that these aerial rivers are flowing across the Amazon, dropping off water for Bogotá, for Quito, even here in Lima,” said Corine Vriesendorp, Ph.D., science director at Conservación Amazónica.
The next 25 years
The future of the Amazon depends on strong alliances between Indigenous peoples, environmental defenders, scientists, youth, governments and philanthropy. Confronting the region’s most urgent threats together could create unprecedented opportunity to protect biodiversity and strengthen community well-being. We have an opportunity to create a healthy, connected Amazon that offers resilience for the region and hope for the planet.
To learn more, watch our full “Future of Amazonia” playlist on YouTube. The panelists and moderators at the event took time to share their key takeaways from the discussion.
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