An extreme and unprecedented drought afflicts the Amazon and the forest peoples

The levels of the Amazon rivers have dropped dramatically and reached never-before-recorded records. The extreme heat, the lack of rain and the smoke from numerous fires are bringing local populations to their knees, triggering a humanitarian, health and environmental crisis.

AMAZÔNIA participates in relief operations to bring food, drinking water, medicines and basic necessities to hundreds of families left isolated in the most remote regions of the forest.

Join the fundraiser by donating even a small contribution:  you will help indigenous and traditional communities overcome a crisis for which they are not responsible, so that they can continue to be the guardians of the largest rainforest on the planet.

The Brazilian Amazon is experiencing the most extreme dry season ever recorded.

Aggravated by man-made global warming and strengthened by the El Niño phenomenon, which has not yet reached its peak, this exceptional drought has caused the Negro River – one of the main ones in the entire region – to fall to the lowest levels recorded in the last 121 years. Other major rivers such as the Solimões, the Purus, the Madeira and the Amazon itself are experiencing extreme levels of drought. According to forecasts, these severe climatic conditions will last at least until mid-2024.

The environmental consequences are dramatic, the thermal stress suffered by billions of trees increases their mortality, reducing the forest’s ability to generate its own rainfall. Over 150 dolphins have been found dead in an Amazon River lake where the water temperature reached 39°C, two degrees above human body temperature. Huge numbers of fish and other aquatic species are dying due to rising temperatures in reservoirs and decreasing oxygen content in the water.

Water scarcity also has a direct impact on the lives of forest people.

Thousands of people are isolated in the most remote regions, the lowering of river levels hinders the flow of boats, the main form of transport in the region and the only means of access to health and educational facilities for many families. Drought threatens the daily subsistence of populations who traditionally depend on fishing and agriculture. In many villages the water is no longer drinkable and the risk of diseases and infections is becoming increasingly high.

We need urgent action and your contribution is essential!

• With a donation of 20 euros, you will guarantee drinking water for a native family for a week;
• With a donation of 45 euros, you will guarantee food for a week for a native family;
• With a donation of 70 euros, you will guarantee drinking water and food for a week for a native family;
• With a donation of 170 euros, you will guarantee drinking water, food and essential medicines for at least 3 weeks for a native family.

Thank you!

Special thanks to the photographers who kindly gave us these extraordinary images e to organize the crowdfunding campaign:

Amazônia Real IG @amazoniareal

Tommaso Protti IG @tomprotti

Tadeu Rocha IG @eu.tadeu

We believe that children are the key to a sustainable future: we want to transform them into bearers of knowledge, respect for the environment and defenders of the Amazon ecosystem.

The Baixo Rio Branco-Jauaperi Reserve is inhabited by approximately 1,500 people, divided into 14 communities. In the region there are no public policies for the management of solid and liquid waste (mainly plastic, sheet metal, aluminum and glass objects, household appliances, fuels, detergents and chemical products, etc.) and each village must independently provide for collection and disposal of the waste, eliminating  it on site or transporting it to the disposal centers in the cities of Manaus and Novo Airão, approximately 400 km away. In the majority of cases, villages do not have river and economic means to deal with this transport and the waste produced lies near inhabited areas or is discharged into the river.

Despite the strong bond and dependence on the surrounding environment for food, travel, the construction of residences and means of transport, the inhabitants of the reserve have acquired habits and customs specific to the urban context in recent decades such as consumerism, use of plastic and fossil fuels.

The notion of the environmental risk inherent in the use of industrialized products did not arrive together with the globalization of consumption, There is a lack of knowledge to carry out adequate separate waste collection and correct separation of waste materials. There is a lack of awareness of the polluting potential of waste sewage and fossil fuels which are often discharged into rivers, deteriorating the water resources used for food consumption and personal hygiene.

Environmental education, understood as awareness of the value of the forest, its natural resources and the integrity of the environment, is an essential cornerstone for the conservation of the forest environment and therefore, for the survival and sustainable development of the populations of the region .

Over the years, Amazônia has carried out various environmental education actions, including the organization of courses and seminars for adults residing in the reserve, with the aim of containing harmful activities to the forestry heritage. We organized intensive workshops with theoretical lessons and practical exercises in the forest, with particular attention to climate issues. For the younger segment of the population, including children and adolescents, we have created numerous environmental education opportunities, through moments of reading, drawing, and educational games.

In 2022 we carried out a pilot project involving 5 schools in the Jauaperi Reserve. The project ended with great success and a unanimous request to continue from local communities, parents, teachers and authorities. autorità.

In 2023, River of Light expands, carrying out environmental education actions in the 14 schools of the reserve to disseminate the value of the forest, its conservation and traditional knowledge, waste management and its correct disposal and the measures necessary to prevent pollution of river waters.

Our Key Objectives

-Raise awareness in 10 communities about the importance of preserving the environment and the Amazon rainforest.

-Involve 185 children in cleaning the villages and the surrounding environment.

-Enhance the teaching skills of 10 teachers.

-Economically benefit 25 adults involved in the execution of the project.

-Involve 100 native families in the educational and economic benefits of the project.

-Contribute to strengthening the education of Native youth and the sustainable management of their communities.

How do we do it

Educators are helping to bridge the gap between traditional wisdom and contemporary understanding. Through engaging lessons and hands-on experiences, they are cultivating a generation of environmentally conscious individuals who will serve as guardians of the rainforest’s future.

Engaging Lessons: We use an approach that combines explanatory lessons with multimedia material adapted to the children’s age. Through educational videos, animations and photographs, we want to raise awareness among young people about the importance of protecting the environment.

Fun and educational activities: We have designed fun and engaging activities both in the classroom and outdoors. Through games, creative workshops, experiments and moments of sharing, we intend to strengthen children’s motivation and create a stimulating learning environment.

At the end of the journey, there will be a ceremony for the delivery of certificates of participation, inviting the families to take part.

The project is the result of collaboration between the education departments of Amazonas and Roraima, ICMBio, CoopXixuaú, Amazônia and Amazon Charitable Trust, with the support of Rothoblaas, Trentino Insieme, Fosit, Riccio Giramondo and Torchiani Servizi Ecologici.

A big thank you to Projeto BioClimAmazônia – INPA and FAPEAM, Laboratório de Psicologia e Educação Ambiental – INPA for the teaching material and to the educator Renata Almeida for the precious work carried out.

This collaborative effort is a shining example of what can be achieved when diverse entities come together with a shared purpose.

Follow us to stay updated on this extraordinary journey and if you can, contribute to its success!

Our story begins 18 years ago, as a direct consequence of an encounter with the peoples of the forest. In the heart of the Amazon, in a small remote village, nestled in a luxuriant and intact primary forest, a group of experts, connoisseurs and passionate defenders of the environment establishes a pact of trust with the native population, with the common goal of protecting the forest. Forever.

Step by step, we have achieved increasingly ambitious goals and implemented projects to spread knowledge, protect delicate environments and chang the lives of many people.

This is why we decided to give ourselves a gift and renew our graphic design: a new logo, a new site, a new colour.

How do you like them?

New logo

The sloth has always been our symbol and describes our deep bond with the forest. We have stylized it, transformed it, even hidden it a little, but it is always him: the animal that best represents the spirit of our organization, the result of a slow adaptation to the environment, with which it lives in total harmony.

The species has a long evolutionary history, whose roots go back to the Eocene. For 35 million years, sloths have lived in tropical forests and have an intimate relationship with the trees on which they depend.

The evolutionary success of this slow and peaceful species is still a mystery. An exclusive inhabitant of the tropical forest, the sloth climbs high into the trees in the morning to get energy from the sun and, when it is very hot, returns to the shade. If sloths didn’t live in warm, humid environments covered by trees, perhaps they would move faster. But over countless generations, they have achieved a pace of life perfectly suited to its environment.

New website

The restyling also affected our website, which changed its look, becoming richer in updated content and information, more dynamic and engaging.

Through this new website we want to communicate and transmit what the Amazon has taught us in twenty years, to share experiences, successes and failures with you. We want to engage with you, tell you the stories of the people who live in the forest, share ideas and projects and spread a message of harmony and respect.

We want to continue to be inspired by nature, observe its balance and learn to respect it for what it is.

And who, if not the local people, can teach us the culture of respect?

New colors

The Amazon Biome contains the largest remaining tropical forest on the planet and the largest river, both in terms of length and flow.

If you have taken a look at our new website you will surely have noticed the uniqueness of the colour: a hybrid between green and blue, a mix of colors that wants to make us fly to the beating heart of the Amazon.

In that forest that is our home, where the bright green plants are reflected in the waters of the streams that flow through them.

Where the boundaries between heaven and earth are undefined. And undefined is also the color that was created especially for us.

We can call it Amazonian green, turquoise blue or forest blue… whatever name we give it, the fact is that by closing our eyes it will take us back there, to that magical distant world.

A big thank you to our partner VisiOnAir for the splendid graphic restyling. A precious gift for our 18 years!

Our environmental Education project in the Amazon ended with success!

Peoples of the forest are its guardians and, for millennia, have lived in harmony with the surrounding environment. However, even in the most remote places of the Biome, new generations are facing difficult challenges: the transition to modernity, the use of technology and the approach to urban reality and consumerism.

With this pilot project, a partnership between Amazônia, Amazon Charitable Trust and CoopXixuaú, financed by Cerchi d’onda Onlus, we wanted to give new generations of people living in the forest some necessary tools to understand the value of a healthy and balanced environment and the need to keep it that way.

The project received the symbolic name “Rio de Luz” (River of Light), which links the river environment where the students live to the concept of light as a symbol of life and knowledge.

The activities, launched in January 2022 and concluded in June of the same year, involved five schools of the Jauaperi Extractive Reserve, in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon. The project wanted to offer the young generations of the beneficiary communities a model of environmental education in order to spread awareness about issues such as the value of the forest, its conservation, traditional knowledge, waste management, river water pollution and appropriate measures to avoid environmental degradation.

The lessons were held by an environmental education teacher, with the support of our staff and local teachers. The initiative received the patronage of the municipal school authorities and the support of the leadership of the traditional communities involved. Various methods were adopted to develop the goal: for the little ones we decided to carry out creativity and drawing activities; for the older ones, we opted for a greater depth of contents. The 70 pupils who benefited from the project watched videos and cartoons, listened to podcasts, had theory lessons and participated in practical training experiences such as separate waste collection. The activities were carried out both in classroom and outdoors, and allowed children and teens to independently reflect on the main themes of the course. Those activities made used various tools for each age group: games, drawing, music, creative and experiential workshops.

At the end of the course, a small ceremony was held to deliver participation certificates, in the presence of families, reinforcing the importance of environmental preservation in traditional communities and rewarding the commitment of the children and teenagers.

Today the Amazon Forest plays a crucial role in containing climate chaos and, therefore, in the future of humanity. The well-being of the forest also depends on the next generations of native inhabitants, who will be the most important guardians of this immense heritage of tropical biodiversity!

We thank all the participants, teachers and partners involved and we look forward to new collaborations in favor of the forest and for the future of the Amazon and humanity.