7 Organisations Protecting the Amazon Rainforest and How to Help

Xinhua/REX

When fires swept across the Brazilian Amazon in August 2019, millions of people asked the same question: what can I actually do from far away? One practical answer was to back the groups that work in the forest year-round. Below are seven organisations that were widely recommended at the time, what each one focuses on, how to judge them before giving, and what happened to the forest in the years that followed.

What happened during the 2019 Amazon fires

Brazil's space research institute, INPE, which tracks fires by satellite, had logged more than 39,000 fires in the Brazilian Amazon between January and 20 August 2019, about 77 per cent more than over the same period in 2018, as The New York Times reported. On 19 August, smoke drifting from fires far to the north and west combined with a cold front to darken the afternoon sky over São Paulo, an event covered by The Washington Post.

Rainforest does not burn easily on its own; most Amazon fires are lit by people. Land is typically cleared by cutting trees, letting them dry and then setting them alight to make way for cattle pasture and, later, crops such as soy. Illegal miners and land-grabbers also use roads and fire to open up new areas. The Intercept documented how ranching and agribusiness interests drove much of the pressure that year.

Politics shaped the moment too. President Jair Bolsonaro took office in January 2019 promising to open the Amazon to development and to weaken protections for Indigenous lands, and enforcement by environmental agencies fell during his term.

NEW: NOAA’s #GOES16 gives this fresh look at the #smoke from the #AmazonRainforest #fires this morning. The smoke is flowing across #Brazil, #Bolivia and #Paraguay. pic.twitter.com/DLxo7M0492

— NOAA Satellites PA (@NOAASatellitePA) August 22, 2019

Why the Amazon matters, and the 20 per cent oxygen myth

A figure that spread everywhere in 2019 was that the Amazon produces 20 per cent of the world's oxygen. That claim is misleading. The forest does release huge amounts of oxygen through photosynthesis, but its trees, soil microbes and animals consume almost all of it again through respiration and decay. Its net contribution to the oxygen we breathe is close to zero, and the atmosphere holds enough oxygen to last for thousands of years regardless.

The real reasons to protect the Amazon are stronger than the slogan:

• Carbon. The forest stores well over a hundred billion tonnes of carbon in its trees and soils. Burning it releases that carbon and speeds up climate change.
• Rain. Trees pump moisture into the air, creating "flying rivers" that bring rainfall to farms and cities across South America.
• Life. The basin is home to an estimated one in ten known species on Earth, many found nowhere else.
• People. Hundreds of Indigenous peoples live there, including some with no regular contact with outsiders. Research consistently shows that legally recognised Indigenous territories lose far less forest than surrounding land.

Scientists also warn of a possible tipping point: if enough forest is lost, parts of the Amazon could shift to drier, savannah-like vegetation that no longer recycles rain. Global Citizen argued in 2019 that losing the forest would speed the decline of wildlife worldwide and undermine progress on poverty and the UN's development goals.

Seven organisations working to protect the Amazon

These groups take different approaches. Some fund land protection, some work through Indigenous partners, and some campaign against the companies and banks that profit from deforestation. Pick the approach you believe in, then check the group's latest reports.

1. Amazon Watch

Founded in 1996, Amazon Watch campaigns alongside Indigenous organisations against oil, mining, dams and agribusiness projects in the basin, and pressures the investors behind them. In 2019 the rapper Lil Nas X pointed his followers to it as the group he chose to support.

2. Amazon Conservation Team

Co-founded in 1996 by ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin and Costa Rican conservationist Liliana Madrigal, this group partners directly with Indigenous and traditional communities in Colombia, Suriname and Brazil. Its work includes mapping ancestral lands, strengthening land rights and supporting traditional medicine and knowledge.

3. Amazon Conservation Association

Now usually called Amazon Conservation, this organisation focuses on the Andes-Amazon region of Peru and Bolivia. It runs biological research stations, trains local conservationists, supports sustainable livelihoods such as Brazil-nut harvesting, and uses satellite monitoring to flag new clearing. By 2019 it had planted more than 275,000 trees, according to Global Citizen.

4. Survival International

Founded in London in 1969, Survival International campaigns for the rights of tribal and Indigenous peoples worldwide, including uncontacted groups in Brazil and Peru. Its view, shared by the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, is that securing Indigenous land rights is one of the most effective ways to protect forests.

5. International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs

IWGIA, based in Copenhagen since 1968, documents the situation of Indigenous peoples, publishes the yearbook The Indigenous World, issued since 1994, and supports advocacy at national and international level. Its Amazon work centres on land titling and the defence of Indigenous territories.

6. Rainforest Action Network

Based in San Francisco and active since 1985, RAN targets the corporate end of deforestation: banks, food brands and commodity traders whose supply chains reach into tropical forests. It works alongside frontline communities and runs public campaigns to change company policies.

7. Rainforest Trust

Rainforest Trust has funded the purchase and legal protection of threatened land since 1988, working through local partner organisations. Global Citizen credited it in 2019 with more than 23 million acres, but that figure covers projects across the tropics, not only the Amazon; by 2025 the organisation's total had passed 50 million acres.

How to choose where to give

• Match the approach to your values. Land purchase, Indigenous rights and corporate campaigns all help, but in different ways.
• Look for local partnership. Projects led with, or by, the people who live in the forest tend to last.
• Read recent reports. Dated annual accounts and project updates matter more than headline totals from years ago.
• Use independent checks. Charity evaluators and national charity registers can confirm registration and finances.
• Give regularly if you can. Steady monthly support is often more useful to small teams than one-off donations during a crisis.

Beyond donating, you can cut demand for products linked to deforestation, such as beef and soy from unverified sources, and ask retailers and banks about their forest policies.

What happened to the Amazon after 2019

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon stayed high throughout Bolsonaro's term, from 2019 to 2022. After Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva returned to the presidency in 2023, INPE's annual PRODES survey showed sharp falls: about 9,000 square kilometres cleared in the year to July 2023, and around 6,300 square kilometres the following year, the lowest figure in close to a decade. Brazil has pledged to end illegal deforestation by 2030.

Fire, however, did not go away. Severe droughts in 2023 and 2024 brought very high fire counts even as clearing fell, a reminder that a hotter, drier climate makes the forest more flammable. The groups above remain active, and the case for supporting them is as strong as it was in 2019.

Sources: The New York Times; The Intercept; Global Citizen; Africanews (AFP), November 2023; Free Malaysia Today (AFP), November 2024; The Washington Post; Wikipedia: 2019 Amazon rainforest wildfires; Wikipedia: Amazon Conservation Team; Wikipedia: IWGIA; Wikipedia: Rainforest Trust; the organisations' official websites linked above. Header photo: Xinhua/REX. Embedded post: NOAA Satellites on X.