Amazon Basin With more than 1.45 million kilometers of rivers and streams, the Amazon basin is the world's largest river system network. © TNC
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This edition focuses on how technology and data support TNC’s 2030 goals for freshwater.
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As part of our conservation planning process, we developed a prioritization plan across the sub-watersheds of the basin. The spatial analysis for prioritization included eight biodiversity and one cultural dataset and six threat-based data layers. We identified priority areas in places where high biodiversity and high threat values coincided. We also accounted for low connectivity due to existing dams.
Mapping Conservation Goals
Based on the conservation planning principles of sustaining viable ecosystem structure and function to support Amazon biodiversity, we set high-level, long-term conservation goals. This spatial analysis of sub-watershed priorities provides us with the right blueprint to track and meet these ambitious goals. The most critical component of this plan is the maintenance of connected corridors in free-flowing rivers and headwaters that remain connected to the main stems.
Amazon Basin Diversity Goals
To maintain diversity, our goals for the Amazon Basin include*:
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80%
of main-river connected corridors remain functional/healthy
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80%
of wetland areas and flood pulses remain functional/healthy
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30%
of headwaters are connected to main stems
*All of these include the preservation of livelihood values for communities and Indigenous Peoples.
As TNC moves toward implementation, we are developing explicit conservation strategies to carry out in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil where we, and a variety of partners, are promoting a system-based approach. These strategies will both help us achieve our conservation goals in the Amazon Basin by 2030 and realize our long-term vision beyond 2030 of protecting 23,180 kilometers of free-flowing large and very large rivers, 535,454 kilometers of free-flowing and connected small and medium-sized rivers and more than 66 million hectares of wetlands.
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The Amazon presents a significant opportunity for durable freshwater protection of areas, including Indigenous territories, that encompass 55% of the Amazon Basin. With the initiation of the recent Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, countries in the Amazon Basin have committed to protecting 30% of ecosystems inclusive of inland waters. Many current protected areas fail to address key ecological factors necessary to maintain freshwater biodiversity, often lacking specific management interventions for critical issues such as pollution and connectivity loss. TNC is working to increase freshwater protection and strengthen the territorial and resource use rights of Indigenous and local communities, ensuring the durability of species movement within the Amazon River network.
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Contributing to water and food security through the implementation of nature-based solutions and community-based fisheries management is of significant focus for TNC in the Amazon. Building on more than 20 years of successful experience in promoting long-term mechanisms for water source protection in the region (i.e., several mature water funds protect water sources in the Amazon Basin), TNC is conducting spatial mapping of water security assets to guide nature-based investments with donors and investors, supporting the creation and management of new water reserves in Ecuador to guarantee water provision to local populations and leveraging policies to improve these solutions.
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In areas with high flows, hydropower is one of the fastest-growing sectors due to soaring energy needs and a shift from carbon-based energies. There are already plans for many more hydropower dams in the future, which would cause significant ecological impacts, threatening the connectivity of free-flowing rivers. The nuances around hydropower as a viable alternative to carbon-based energy illustrates why a shared strategic framework is needed across stakeholder groups. As a science-based organization, TNC is leading a case study in the Marañon watershed in Peru to strengthen decision-making around dam construction to reduce impacts on people and nature in energy planning. TNC is committed to supporting countries as they transition to low-carbon economies, avoiding projects that can have negative impacts on the environmental and socio-economic landscape.
Advancing these conservation strategies will amount to 15 million hectares of wetlands and 200,000 kilometers of rivers under protection, thereby providing meaningful progress toward our 2030 conservation goals.
We Can’t Save Nature Without You
Download the report and visit our Geospatial Conservation Atlas for more information. The full 2022 Geospatial Annual Report & Map Book includes:
- A tribute to Jonathan Higgins, our beloved freshwater ecologist who passed away last year.
- A strategic focus on our 2030 goals for freshwater.
- Results from our annual survey that reached more than 1,500 staff.
- TNC’s geospatial conservation science in action with a feature story in the Amazon Basin.
- A river ecosystem global analysis that summarizes rivers in crisis and those that are free-flowing with opportunities for conservation actors to respond.
- Lake Tanganyika Basin map spotlight.
- Further advancing our work in conservation accounting with geospatial systems.
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The maps and use cases illustrate the range with which geospatial technology is used among four priority geographies around the world.
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Media Contact
Zach Ferdaña
Director, Conservation & Geospatial Systems
The Nature Conservancy
Phone: 206-409-0041
Email: zferdana@tnc.org
