Climate change

A healthy Amazon can help reduce climate change, thanks to trees absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But climate change is also a threat to the Amazon. As the world warms, there’s a serious risk the Amazon could reach a tipping point where the rainforest starts to suffer from warmer, drier conditions and plants start to die. That would release even more carbon, so the world could warm quicker still.

Getting politicians to strike a strong global climate deal is the big solution, but halting deforestation in the Amazon is also crucial. One way WWF is helping to do this is by supporting a new global concept known as REDD+ (which stands for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation). Under the scheme, developing countries would get financial incentives to conserve or manage forests responsibly in return for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that come from deforestation.

In the Amazon, WWF is supporting the development of REDD+ approaches in countries including Brazil and Colombia, to help make it fair and effective. Sky Rainforest Rescue is a big part of this work and will help provide important lessons for other areas where WWF is working.

Find out more on WWF’s website.