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Silvana Nihua, president of the Waorani Organization of Pastaza (OWAP), travels along the Curaray River where indigenous communities reside in riverside villages in the Amazon province of Pastaza, Ecuador, on April 26, 2022

The Amazon rainforest and climate change

Updated: August 11, 2023

The Amazon rainforest is crucial to maintaining a stable climate on the planet - but continuing deforestation presents a major threat to the forest and indigenous communities who live there. What is being done to try to stem it? 

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Governor of Brazil's Para State Helder Barbalho talks with Brazil's Indigenous Peoples Minister Sonia Guajajara during the Amazon Summit at the Hangar Convention Centre in Belem, Para State, Brazil, August 9, 2023. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino
NatureAmazon summit lights way for Indigenous say in forest protection
Corina Magno holds seeds from the rubber trees her father has planted over decades in Pará, Brazil, January 17, 2023. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Cícero Pedrosa Neto
Just TransitionIn Brazil's Amazon, Pará bets on bioeconomy to beat deforestation 

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A road runs through a tract of burnt Amazon jungle near Porto Velho, Rondonia State, Brazil, August 14, 2020. Creatures of the Amazon, one of the earth's most biodiverse habitats, face an ever-growing threat as loggers and farms advance further and further into the rainforest. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino
NaturePledges to save Amazon rainforest threatened by railways and roads
A slave descendant person, or a Quilombola looks on during a protest for recognition and support of Indigenous people in education and against Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's Government in Brasilia, Brazil October 7, 2021
NatureDescendants of enslaved Africans seek land rights in the Amazon
Logs are seen in Bom Retiro deforestation area on the right side of the BR 319 highway near Humaita, Amazonas state, Brazil September 20, 2019. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly
NatureWhich products do the most harm to the Amazon rainforest?
Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva greet indigenous people upon their arrival at the event 'Road to the Amazon Summit' in Leticia, Colombia July 8, 2023. Colombian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS
NatureIs the Amazon summit the best chance to save the rainforest?
A rubber tree is seen at the Manu National Park in Peru's southern Amazon region of Madre de Dios July 17, 2014
NatureIn Peru's Amazon, anti-Indigenous bill targets uncontacted people
Macaws sit on a tree at the Amazon rainforest in Manaus, Amazonas State, Brazil October 26, 2022. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly
NatureIn Brazil's Amazon, carbon credit project halted over land dispute
Jose Jansa, a governor of the Inga indigenous people, standing in a rural area in the province of Putumayo, Colombia. February 2, 2023
NatureCan Colombia's green businesses beat drugs and deforestation?
A boy from the Indigenous Mura tribe, reacts in front of a deforested area in nondemarcated indigenous land inside the Amazon rainforest, near Humaita, Amazonas State, Brazil, August 20, 2019. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino
NatureAmid Brazil uprising, indigenous Amazon bucks growing CO2 trend
Indigenous leader of the Celia Xakriaba tribe walks next to the Xingu River during a four-day pow wow in Piaracu village, in Xingu Indigenous Park, near Sao Jose do Xingu, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, January 15, 2020. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes
NatureBrazil targets Amazon rainforest NFTs in win for indigenous people
Old and young indigenous people hold tracajá turtles at Jericoa, a sacred site with a confluence of waterfalls and rapids on the Volta Grande in the River Xingu, Pará, Brazil, September 16, 2022. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Dan Collyns
NatureBrazil's 'people of the river' pay price for Amazon hydropower
Leaders from indigenous communities in the Amazon basin hold a news conference during a meeting where they demanded South American governments halt extractive industries that damage the rainforest, in Union Base, Ecuador
NatureIndigenous leaders seek global pact to preserve 80% of Amazon forest
Four members of the Mujeres Amazonicas coalition hold hands in a women’s center
Climate JusticeIndigenous women battle growing Amazon violence with trauma center

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