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In honor of Amazon Watch’s 25th anniversary, our 2021-2025 Strategic Plan builds upon 25 years of work to protect the Amazon rainforest and defend the rights, lives and territories of Indigenous peoples. We commit to work in solidarity with Indigenous peoples and a growing global movement calling for urgent action to permanently protect the Amazon, defend the defenders, and advance climate justice.
The Amazon Rainforest at a Tipping Point
The Amazon rainforest is at a “tipping point,” the point at which the degradation of the ecosystem is irreversible. According to Carlos Nobre and Thomas Lovejoy, members of the Science Panel for the Amazon, “Current deforestation across the Amazon basin is 17% and approaching 20% in the Brazilian Amazon.” They estimate that the tipping point will be reached at 20-25% deforestation, not 40% as previously predicted. “This is our last chance for action to protect the Amazon,” they warn.
We must take bold and immediate action to shift from a “tipping point to a turning point.” There is no time to waste. The time for global action is now!
Over the next five years Amazon Watch will work towards this critical goal: permanent protection of 80% of the Amazon, including Indigenous territories and protected areas, via solidarity campaigns for demarcation and recognition of ancestral territories. We will advance and amplify Indigenous rights, resistance and solutions to protect and defend the Amazon basin; elevate Indigenous women’s voices and solutions; develop and implement rapid response protocols and campaigns to defend the earth defenders of the Amazon, and redirect $1 million+ per year in solidarity and emergency rapid response funds via our Amazon Defenders Fund (ADF).
With a growing U.S.-based and international team in Brazil, Peru and Ecuador, we will expand regional and international advocacy and communication campaigns to halt and hold accountable the global drivers of Amazon destruction, including governments, corporations, extractive industries -fossil fuel and agribusiness- and their financial backers. We will work in collaboration with regional and international allies to build a Pan-Amazon and global movement to act for the Amazon, Indigenous rights and climate justice.
Organizational Snapshot of Amazon Watch in 2025
Over the next five years, Amazon Watch will build upon our 25 years of work to protect and defend the Amazon in solidarity with Indigenous peoples resulting in the following bold and ambitious goals:
- Permanent protection of 80% of the Amazon rainforest, including demarcation of Indigenous territories and expansion of protected areas.
- Pan Amazon and global movement influence grows to advance calls and campaigns for permanent protection of the Amazon, Indigenous rights and climate justice.
- No new investments in Amazon destruction and ensure that major financial firms drastically curtail investments in fossil fuels and deforestation-causing commodities.
- Rapid response protocols and campaigns to defend Earth Defenders of the Amazon are developed and implemented.
- Women Defenders Program launched and expanded across the Amazon.
- Redirect $1 million+ per year in solidarity and emergency rapid response funds via our Amazon Defenders Fund (ADF).
- Raise over $5 million per year to sustain work and team of 35+ people by 2025.
- Field teams, including campaigners, communicators, lawyers in all of the countries where we work.
- Increased communication and digital capacity of Amazon Watch and our partners.
- Grow online constituency to over 1 million globally.
- Decolonization guidelines and JEDI goals implemented across the organization.
- More representation of Indigenous and women of color at all levels of the organization.
