What is Amazonia?

This 80×25 initiative adopts the Red Amazónica de Información Socioambiental Georreferenciada (RAISG) definition of Amazonia as a region that spans nine countries including Bolivia, Brasil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyane Française, Guyana, Perú, Suriname and Venezuela. The boundary used by RAISG (8,470,209 km2) is a sum of the four criteria mentioned above, always considering the largest option. This results in a boundary formed by: i) the limits of the Amazonia in Colombia and Venezuela; ii) the limits of the Amazon basin in Ecuador, Perú and Bolivia; iii) the sum of the limits of the basins (Amazonas and Araguaia/Tocantins) and the limits of the administrative Legal Amazon in Brasil; iv) the whole continental territories of Guyana, Guyane Française and Suriname.

• View map at RAISG

What is the tipping point?

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2019) defines the tipping point as when achieving “irreversibility – such as degradation of ecosystems that cannot be restored to their original baseline”. A group of scientists define it as “the possibility of a dieback of the entire ecosystem due to deforestation only of parts of the rainforest”. Others established that “a tipping point for the Amazonia system to flip to non-forest ecosystems in eastern, southern and central Amazonia is at 20-25% deforestation.” In summary, this term refers to the start of a process where the planet loses the largest carbon sink that sustains life.

Why 80%?

Deforestation levels are currently approaching 26% tipping point of irreversible damage to the Amazonia ecosystem. Affirming and planning to keep 80% of forests intact and protected is a critical global priority that will enable this ecosystem to function as the climate and weather regulator or heart and lungs of the planet. An 80% protection target also aligns with the cultural survival needs of hundreds of Indigenous nationalities and millions of Indigenous peoples who depend on intact forests and river systems in order to survive. Currently, National Protected Areas (NPAs) and Indigenous Territories (ITs) are vital to protect the Amazonia. Together, they cover 47.2% of the Amazonia (ITs -27.5%- and NPAs -24.6%-, overlap between both 17.7%, RAISG 2021, p.16). 87.5% of deforestation happened beyond these lands (RAISG 2021, p. 46).

Why 2025?

The Amazon is facing a crisis, and there is no time to waste. Safeguarding our shared future requires bold actions, especially considering that current rates of deforestation and degradation will lead the biome on an unstoppable path of disintegration. In short, by 2030, it would already be too late.

Current goals are projected to be achieved by 2030. By that time, more than half of the Amazon will already be destroyed. According to the WWF model in 2007, “current trends of agricultural and livestock expansion, fires, droughts, and logging activities could deforest or severely damage 55% of the Amazon rainforest by the year 2030.” Lovejoy and Nobre (2019) established that “if the Amazon is to continue serving as a driver of the planet’s continental climate and an essential element of the global carbon cycle, as it has done for millennia, it is not only incapable of bearing higher levels of deforestation but now requires reconstruction as the basis of the hydrological cycle.”