The Amazon’s major tributaries originate in the foothills of the Andes Mountains, with the headwaters of the entire basin forming an arc stretching from Venezuela to Bolivia. These headwaters play an essential ecological role in the largest watershed on the planet by sustaining a wealth of species. Jaguars prowl through lush forests while giant river otters swim alongside schools of piranhas. These life-giving waters also provide food and a source of income for the Amazon basin’s 30 million human inhabitants.

To protect this extraordinary place, in 2003 WWF launched the Amazon Headwaters Initiative (AHI) that builds on more than four decades of conservation in the region. AHI is a ten-year, tri-national program aimed at safeguarding the southwestern headwaters of the Amazon Basin by preserving large expanses of forest and freshwater habitats in Bolivia, Brazil and Peru. This innovative program brings together diverse stakeholders such as indigenous and traditional resource users, governments and local non-governmental organizations to achieve long-term, large-scale conservation results. Through AHI, protected areas will be more effective and will anchor a mosaic of lands that provide environmental and sustainable development benefits.

• protecting and effectively managing strategic sites within target forest blocks, bringing 25.7 million acres – more than 10 times the size of Yellowstone National Park – under improved conservation

• conducting on-the-ground field research to determine the optimal size and configuration of new protected areas

• launching a regional policy program to tackle basin-wide challenges, including renewed investment in large-scale infrastructure development

• enhancing large-scale program effectiveness standards, based on an adaptive management approach, to monitor our progress and maximize our learning across the initiative Protecting Earth’s Largest River Basin

• WWF successfully advocated for the creation of three new protected areas in Bolivia and Peru covering almost 7 million acres – about five times the size of the state of Delaware.

• By the end of 2006, WWF supported improved management in 12 protected areas, 5 large indigenous territories and 4 communities surrounding these areas – conserving a total of over 25
million acres more effectively.

• We have begun working with governments in Brazil, Bolivia and Peru to establish eight additional
protected areas. Areas in which we worked to achieve these results include: Bolivia: Bruno Racua Wildlife Reserve, Kenneth Lee Reserve, Manuripi National Wildlife Reserve, Iténez State Park

• Brazil: Community Protected Flooded Forests, Iaco Extractive Reserve, Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, Cazumba-Iracema Extractive Reserve

• Peru: Tambopata National Reserve, Purús Communal Reserve, Madre de Dios Reserve, and Alto Purús National Park