novembro, 21 2025

By Solange Azevedo, WWF-Brazil

The short documentary Amazon Turning Point, released today by WWF-Brazil, showcases nature-based solutions capable of ensuring the conservation and future of the biome. Co-directed by Fer Ligabue, Jacqueline Lisboa and Solange Azevedo, the film presents initiatives led by the Paiter Suruí people in the Sete de Setembro Indigenous Territory, in Rondônia. These practices, which combine traditional knowledge with scientific expertise, are considered essential to curb deforestation and increase the forest’s resilience.

“What are the Suruí producing? Coffee, cacao, bananas… Brazil nuts — when production was high, it reached around 320 to 330 tons. Coffee, through three cooperatives, must have reached three or four tons,” highlights Almir Suruí, the general chief. “These initiatives of producing responsibly and sustainably are a model we are proposing for the Amazon.”

The short film also features voices such as Carlos Nobre, co-chair of the Science Panel for the Amazon, and Ivaneide Bandeira Cardozo, co-founder of the Kanindé Ethno-Environmental Defense Association, who reinforce the urgency of adopting nature-based solutions, showing how Indigenous and traditional communities sustainably manage resources by connecting ancestral knowledge with forest preservation.

Covering approximately 6.74 million km², the Amazon spans eight countries — Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Venezuela and Suriname — in addition to French Guiana. About 60% of the biome lies within Brazilian territory. The region is home to more than 10% of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity, 10% of all known fish species, 47 million people — including 2.2 million Indigenous and traditional peoples — and stores between 250 and 300 billion tons of carbon.

The Amazon rainforest performs vital climate functions: it regulates the climate, creates rainfall through so-called flying rivers, influences ocean currents and maintains water stability throughout South America. But deforestation and forest degradation have been undermining this resilience, making the biome more vulnerable to climate change.

The study New Economy for the Amazon, referenced in the short film, shows that investing in bioeconomy and conservation can generate positive impacts by 2050, including:

• 833,000 new jobs in the bioeconomy
• Over R$ 40 billion/year added to the GDP of the Brazilian Amazon
• Economic growth, including in sectors such as agriculture and mining
• 94% fewer greenhouse gas emissions
• Increased carbon stocks and more productive lands
• Reduced water risk and preserved soil fertility

With Amazon Tipping Point, WWF-Brazil reinforces that there are still pathways to restore the biome — as long as public policies, local communities and civil society work together. The short film invites everyone to understand that the standing forest is worth more than a cleared one — economically, socially and environmentally.

“The greatest wealth lies in the standing forest. The greatest wealth lies in guaranteeing life. The greatest wealth is the economy of a livable future as well,” says Txai Suruí in the film. “And it is possible to produce, as I said — but also to protect.”

Watch the short documentary here and help spread the message about the importance of acting now to ensure that the Amazon remains a natural, cultural and climate heritage for Brazil and the world.