As the guardians of the headwaters of the Amazon, the importance of protecting waterways and ensuring their health to our work cannot be understated.
The Amazon is well known for its long, curving rivers going through vast expanses of green forests.
Its most prominent river, the Amazon River, is the second-longest on the planet, spanning over 3,912 miles and crossing Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela.
It carries more water than any other river in the world and is one of the last unstopped, undammed rivers that go from source to the ocean left.
Despite its beauty and importance, the river is under constant threats of degradation and contamination. Without it, millions of people will be left without drinking water, a source of protein from local fish, and their livelihoods.
In certain parts of Peru, the lack of monitoring of water quality in rivers can have deadly consequences. Water is often contaminated by mercury due to illegal gold mining activities. We developed Peru's first community water monitoring system, enabling local populations to monitor the health of key aquatic resources. We put this replicable model into action in partnership with the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve — an indigenous territory of 1 million acres where many rivers are born.
Many Amazonian communities are dependent on water from the forest; however, population growth and high deforestation levels make water increasingly scarce. We mobilize local solutions to ensure water supply by connecting stakeholders, building agreements, and providing technical capacity.
The little-known Quelccaya Ice Cap is perched 18,400 feet above sea level in the Peruvian Andes. With a surface area of 17 square miles, it is the world's largest tropical glacier and feeds many Amazonian rivers. The glacier is now part of a conservation area we are helping create so that measures can be taken to slow down the deglaciation process.
We partnered with Michael Goulding, one of the world's leading experts on Amazonian rivers and their biodiversity, to direct the production of 10 extraordinary books about the Amazon's sprawling river system and the rich life it supports. Authored by an international team of aquatic conservation ecologists, these volumes are packed with beautiful photos and published in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
Our MAAP Project keeps a close eye on riverbanks where gold mining deforestation and contamination is likely to happen. The project finds, tracks, and exposes deforestation in near-real time using satellite images and radar technology. In one instance, MAAP discovered that illegal gold mining was changing the course of a river. By alerting local authorities, the activity was stopped before it reached a point of no return — and both the river course and the forest are now recovering.
We empower local, remote, rural communities in the protection of their highland wetlands — bofedales in Spanish. This ecosystem is vital: water from the bofedales and the Andes trickles down to become the Amazon River and its tributaries. We helped the Japu community — the closest living descendants of the Incas — reduce overgrazing of alpaca, engage youth in wetlands education, work with scientists, and create a sustainable land management plan.
"Amazon Conservation helped create local agreements to protect and manage the threatened water resources of my community and provided open training for our members to become leaders in conservation. Now I lead part of the effort to help my community get access to water.
— Jenny Olivera, local community organizer in Bolivia