Amazon Rainforest

• Amazon rainforest

  Located in the north of South America, spanning an area of around 8 million km2 including parts of Brazil, Columbia, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador Bolivia, Suriname, Guyana and French Guyana
• Sustainable management strategies

  • Ensure people today can get the resources they need in a way that ensures future generations can also benefit from the ecosystem
  • Affected by political and economic factors
• Governance

  Control of rainforests and who has a say in how rainforests are used
• Rainforest protection

  • National and international laws
  • Central Amazon Conservation Complex (CACC) in Brazil - 60000 km2 protected area classified as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations
• Local community involvement

  • Natütama organisation in Columbia working with local community in Puerto Nariño to protect river species
  • Local people employed to teach community on habitat and endangered species protection
  • Local fishermen collect information on species and report illegal hunting
• Commodity value

  Assigning a value to different goods and services in a rainforest to ensure rainforests are worth more than the value of the timber and other resources that can be extracted
• Sustainable forestry

  • Selective logging - removing a small number of trees to allow forest regeneration
  • Precious Woods Amazon - limits on number of trees cut down to allow recovery
  • Use of a range of species to avoid over-exploitation
• Ecotourism

  Type of tourism that minimises damage to the environment and benefits local people
• Yachana Lodge in Ecuador


  • Located in remote area where local people rely on subsistence farming
  • Employs local people providing reliable income and better quality of life
  • Encourages sustainable use of rainforest so tourists continue to visit
  • Volunteers work with local Amazon youth at Yachana Technical High School on rainforest conservation, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, animal husbandry, ecotourism and micro-enterprise development
  • Tourists visit in small groups to minimise environmental impact and take part in conservation awareness activities
  • Entrance fees invested in conservation and education projects