Amazon rainforest gets new protection boost as 30 global organizations unite under groundbreaking monitoring agreement

A landmark conservation agreement emerged from the COP30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil this week, bringing together 30 international organizations in an unprecedented effort to better monitor and protect the Amazon Rainforest. The Mamirauá Declaration represents what organizers call “a collective commitment to transform how biodiversity is monitored, governed and protected across the Amazon Basin.”

The ambitious initiative unites diverse partners including Brazil’s Mamirauá Institute, Spain’s Polytechnic University of Catalonia, New York University, and the XPRIZE Foundation under a shared framework for Amazon conservation. Rather than starting from scratch, the declaration aims to coordinate the many scattered, long-term monitoring efforts already underway across the vast rainforest region.

“The declaration is a call to bring together governments, NGOs, Indigenous people and local communities and the private sector together to measure the pulse of the forest,” explained Emiliano Ramalho, technical scientific director at the Mamirauá Institute, which helped lead the coordination efforts. “Looking from above, you can say the forest is there, but to see if it is pulsing or not, you need to go there and monitor.”

A key strength of the agreement is its emphasis on including Indigenous peoples and local communities as active participants in monitoring efforts, recognizing their deep knowledge of forest ecosystems. The declaration also prioritizes building monitoring capacity within Amazon Basin countries themselves, potentially creating a more sustainable and locally-driven approach to protecting one of Earth’s most critical ecosystems for climate stability and biodiversity.