Nature-Based Solutions
Amazon uses nature-based solutions to mitigate carbon emissions outside of our value chain and supplement the carbon-reduction efforts we’re driving across our operations. We also invest in conservation and restoration initiatives to protect the natural world, improve wildlife habitats, and promote biodiversity.
Carbon Neutralization
We follow scientific research to fund initiatives that are critical to hitting the targets of the Paris Agreement and staving off the most catastrophic effects of climate change.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has made clear that carbon emissions from several industries will not be fully reduced by 2050. Even with aggressive decarbonization efforts, many companies will need to neutralize some emissions that cannot be eliminated to achieve net-zero carbon.
Carbon neutralization represents an opportunity for the world to help reduce emissions and stabilize the changing climate, while helping to preserve the natural world. Our nature-based carbon removal actions are focused on halting tropical rainforest loss, restoring degraded land, and scaling technologies that capture carbon emissions.
Protecting the World’s Tropical Rainforests
Tropical deforestation contributes approximately one-fifth of global emissions, according to the IPCC.
In 2021, Amazon helped create the Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest finance (LEAF) Coalition, a public-private project which has mobilized over $1 billion in corporate and government finance to protect tropical rainforests around the world.
The LEAF Coalition is designed to accelerate climate action by providing financing to help countries protect their tropical rainforests.
In November 2021, the Coalition signed Letters of Intent with five tropical forest countries: Ecuador, Costa Rica, Ghana, Vietnam, and Nepal. In 2022, during COP27, four Brazilian states signed Letters of Intent to participate in the Coalition, bringing participating tropical forest jurisdictions to nine.
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Restoring Degraded Landscapes
Restoring landscapes has the potential to remove billions of tons of carbon emissions while improving local livelihoods. Amazon is advancing restoration efforts by the world’s smallholder farmers.
In 2023, Amazon launched new partnerships to help smallholder farmers in the Brazilian state of Pará and the Peruvian Amazon restore degraded land with diverse agroforestry systems. These partnerships build on the Agroforestry and Restoration Accelerator in Brazil, which Amazon launched with The Nature Conservancy in 2021. These projects will restore degraded land to naturally trap and store carbon and mitigate climate change, while creating a more-sustainable source of income for thousands of local farmers from commodities such as cocoa and citrus.
To ensure the carbon benefits from these projects are robustly accounted for, Amazon is advancing new measurement approaches through the ABACUS standard—a rigorous set of principles and requirements to quantify the climate impacts of forest restoration projects. Project developers and investors developing new restoration projects that meet the ABACUS requirements are encouraged to respond to Amazon’s Request for Information.
In 2023, Amazon launched new partnerships to help smallholder farmers in the Brazilian state of Pará and the Peruvian Amazon restore degraded land with diverse agroforestry systems. These partnerships build on the Agroforestry and Restoration Accelerator in Brazil, which Amazon launched with The Nature Conservancy in 2021. These projects will restore degraded land to naturally trap and store carbon and mitigate climate change, while creating a more-sustainable source of income for thousands of local farmers from commodities such as cocoa and citrus.
To ensure the carbon benefits from these projects are robustly accounted for, Amazon is advancing new measurement approaches through the ABACUS standard—a rigorous set of principles and requirements to quantify the climate impacts of forest restoration projects. Project developers and investors developing new restoration projects that meet the ABACUS requirements are encouraged to respond to Amazon’s Request for Information.
Investing in Global Communities
In 2019, Amazon created the Right Now Climate Fund, a $100 million fund for nature-based solutions to restore and conserve forests, wetlands, and grasslands around the world. Through it, we’re financing community-focused projects to mitigate the impacts of climate change, enhance biodiversity, and add green space to urban areas.
Belgium
Spain
Ireland
India
Spain
Netherlands
France
United Kingdom
Italy
Germany
United States
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In 2024, Amazon announced its first Right Now Climate Fund project in Belgium, providing €1.1 million funding for the establishment of the newest Belgian National Park, Brabantse Wouden. Brabantse Wouden is recognized by UNESCO for its ancient woodlands that have been unchanged since the Ice Age. This funding will support initiatives that enhance the climate resilience and biodiversity of the National Park’s woodland as well as encouraging more of the local community to benefit from the Park’s nature.
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In 2024, Amazon announced a €2.2 million grant to support Arco Verde in Madrid, a new 200-kilometer-long green walking and cycling route that will surround the city. Amazon will fund the construction of a 14-kilometer section of the route that will include pedestrian paths and cycle lanes, as well as restoring 16.7 hectares of habitat and planting more than 16,000 trees and bushes.
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In 2023, Amazon donated €2.5 million in funding to The Nature Trust. The Nature Trust will use the donation to rehabilitate 500 hectares of degraded Atlantic blanket bog in the west of Ireland. The aim of the work is to restore a functioning peatland habitat by creating the conditions for bog-forming mosses to grow. Restoring peatlands will deliver a range of climate benefits through reduced carbon emissions, long-term carbon storage, and enhanced resilience to the impacts of climate change.
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In 2023, Amazon announced an initial $3 million investment into India-based projects. Amazon will partner with the Centre for Wildlife Studies (CWS) to plant 300,000 trees in the Western Ghats over three years, creating carbon sinks as well as enhancing livelihoods and wildlife conservation. Amazon will spend $1 million to help CWS establish the “Wild Carbon” program, which will support 10,000 farmers in planting and maintaining one million fruit-bearing, timber, and medicinal trees. Amazon’s direct contribution will enable CWS to partner with 2,000 family farms to plant 300,000 trees.
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In 2023, Amazon launched the Green Helmets educational initiative with CIFAL Málaga-UNITAR (the United Nations Institute for Training and Research). The project is designed to teach young people in Spain how to develop and implement sustainability projects that contribute to the recovery and protection of nature, with judges selecting 10 projects to fund and develop in the region of Andalusia over the first 12 months. The project is the first of its kind in Spain, and will kick off with a pilot program in collaboration with the Regional Government of Andalusia.
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In 2023, Amazon announced a €1.5 million grant to a consortium of partners headed by North Sea Farmers to fund the world’s first commercial-scale seaweed farm located between offshore wind turbines. Seaweed has the potential to help address climate change by absorbing CO2 as it grows, and could enhance biodiversity. The project, North Sea Farm 1, will be located in a wind farm off the coast of the Netherlands, and is designed to test and improve methods of seaweed farming while researching the potential of seaweed to sequester carbon.
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In 2022, Amazon committed €3 million of funding over a three-year period to the Fonds Nature 2050, created by CDC Biodiversité. The funding will support the preservation, restoration, and management of an estimated 600,000 square meters of habitat. The Fonds Nature 2050 is devoted to preserving and restoring biodiversity while mitigating the consequences of climate change, as well as improving ecosystems and territorial resilience.
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In October 2022, Amazon committed £2.8 million to two UK programs: The Woodland Trust’s Emergency Tree Fund and the Rewild London Fund led by the Mayor of London. Both initiatives aim to enhance biodiversity and improve access to nature through tree-planting, while creating jobs and volunteering opportunities. Together, the programs will plant over 450,000 trees and support 22 critical London rewilding projects.
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In 2021, Amazon committed €2 million to support Parco Italia, an urban forestry program that aims to plant 22 million trees across 14 metropolitan areas in Italy. This translates to one tree planted per city resident. Amazon’s support for this project will help cities become more resilient to climate change by increasing urban biodiversity, improving air quality, and promoting urban cooling.
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In 2020, Amazon committed €3.75 million to The Nature Conservancy’s Urban Greening Program in Germany, which promotes biodiversity, reduces urban heat islands, and improves stormwater management in the face of climate change. With Amazon’s support, the program launched in Berlin’s Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district in 2020. In 2021, the Urban Greening Program developed mapping and analysis for roofs, grasslands, and urban streetscapes for greening potential.
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In 2020, Amazon committed $10 million to support two programs in the U.S. in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy. The programs help family forest owners sequester carbon across the Appalachian region of the Eastern U.S., which has been identified as disproportionately important for conserving biodiversity and mitigating climate change. Amazon’s grant supports efforts to expand the programs to new regions, develop a scientific approach to measuring regional carbon impact, and enhance carbon verification methodologies for these projects.
