Learn about the initiative to protect the source of the Amazon River

The hillsides of Nevado Mismi, in the Peruvian Amazon, hold the origin of one of the most important rivers on the planet. It is in the Andes region, more than 5,000 meters above sea level, that the Amazon River emerges, at first as a small watercourse, which will cross South America, bathe countries and flow, immensely, into the Atlantic Ocean. This source of life and biodiversity is an essential place for maintaining nature and ways of life on Earth, especially in times of climate crisis. And it is climate change that is putting the source of the Amazon at risk, threatened by altered rainfall patterns and the accelerated melting of the snow-capped mountains of the Mismi. Find out now about the project that brings Brazil and Peru together to create the first environmental protection area at the source of the Amazon River. 

The initiative is a mobilization of the Foundation for Amazon Sustainability (FAS), in partnership with the Peruvian government's National Service for Protected Natural Areas (SERNANP) and has the support of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the Amazon (SDSN Amazonia). The aim of this alliance between organizations is to bring together partners and support regional governments in the process of establishing a protected area on Nevado Mismi, the cradle of the source of the Amazon. This 28,000-hectare territory, located in the province of Arequipa, Peru, is made up of mountains, glaciers and snow-capped peaks which, in recent decades, have suffered from the effects of the climate crisis. 

According to data from the Instituto Nacional de Investigación en Glaciares y Ecosistemas de Montaña (INAIGEM), El Mismi is in danger of disappearing by 2027. In the last 50 years, the mountain has lost 99% of its glacial reserves, leaving only 0.19 square kilometers. The melting of the glaciers has serious consequences for local communities, such as changes in the water regime of natural lakes and streams, risks of avalanches and floods, and the likelihood of contamination by chemical products present in the ice crust and mountains, threatening the ecosystem, production systems and traditional cultures of the people who inhabit the Mismi. 

“Glaciers are of great importance in the lives of Andean populations, as it is through their melting that lagoons are formed, and agricultural activities are viable. However, with the total melting of the ice at the top of the mountains, it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain activities that depend on water. The ice that used to remain at the top of the mountains and take months to melt is now completely gone in just a week,” explains Virgilio Viana, general superintendent of FAS. 

“I'm 60 years old now. When I was about 8 or 10 years old, there was snow in our mountains, almost perpetual snow, all year round. Every year there was snow and water. As the years go by, the amount decreases. Less and less snow,” says Hector Delgado, a cattle farmer and resident of the Mismi region. “Nowadays, the rainy season comes, the rainy season ends, more or less, in March or April. May and June arrive and there's no more snow, everything thaws out.” 

Conserving the source of the Amazon River in Peru is vital not only for the region and the country, but for the entire global ecosystem. As the birthplace of the world's largest river by volume of water, preserving this region not only maintains the Amazon's unique biodiversity, but also protects the essential ecosystem services that the rainforest provides. This area is crucial for mitigating climate change, serving as a vital carbon sink and maintaining regional and global climate cycles.       

In October 2023, FAS and other partner organizations held a meeting with the Arequipa state authorities to present and formalize the proposal to create a protected area at the source of the Amazon. The meeting also aimed to build a broader alliance to support the initiative and mobilize the resources needed to follow through with the process of creating the protected area, as well as verifying resources to protect and support the sustainable development of local communities.  

“Protecting the source of the Amazon is very symbolic, not only because it is the largest river in the world. It's also an act of climate justice,” says Virgilio Viana.    

During the same period, the alliance undertook an expedition to Nevado Mismi to the source of the Amazon River, a journey that covered part of the Andean Amazon and connected partners from Brazil and Peru around the protection of this fundamental territory for the planet. The result of this trip, and the process of creating the protected area, was recorded and made into a documentary, which was released on the FAS YouTube channel. Check it out: https://youtu.be/chomZElQlig