OUR RESPONSE TO THE AMAZON FIRES
I
n August, the world watched in horror as catastrophic fires engulfed the Amazon. Scientists warn that this man-made crisis—part of a surge in illegal deforestation concentrated in Brazil—is pushing
18
this precious ecosystem toward the brink of collapse. As the world’s largest and most biodiverse rainforest, the Amazon is not only critical for the Earth’s climate stability, it also feeds our collective imagination about the natural world. An international outcry gave rise to an inspiring global mobilization to defend the Amazon. The Rainforest Alliance was suddenly flooded with interview requests and questions from our social media followers about how people could help. We immediately launched an
emergency fundraiser on Instagram to raise urgently needed money for Amazon-based organizations fighting the crisis on the ground. The fundraiser went viral and raised more than US $1.2 million—100% of which went directly to the frontline organizations—six in Brazil, two in Peru, two in Colombia, and the Indigenous leadership federation representing all nine Amazon nations—which are now part of our new pan-Amazon alliance. The initiative also facilitated
