There is no Amazon without the Andes
- Nov 13
- 2 min read
13th November 2025
By Paula Perrelli dos Anjos
High in the Andes, clouds gather and fall as rain over green valleys. These drops become streams, then rivers, flowing eastward until they merge into the mighty Amazon. Long before the forest reaches Brazil, it begins in the Andean Amazon, where people, ecosystems and traditions shape the headwaters that sustain the largest tropical rainforest on Earth.
As the world convenes in Belém for COP30 — the first-ever climate conference hosted in the Amazon — global attention is fixed on the forest’s future. Yet much of the Amazon’s story starts upstream. In the Andes, complex socioecological systems, ancient indigenous knowledge and critical freshwater sources define the resilience of the entire basin.
This region generates nearly half of the Amazon’s freshwater, harbours unique biodiversity, and is home to millions whose livelihoods depend on healthy rivers and forests.
ANDEAN EFFORT
At Amazonia Impact Ventures (AIV), we partner with 12 local enterprises and Indigenous organisations to show what sustainable development looks like when finance flows to the right places. These are community-led initiatives that collectively manage over 200,000 hectares of forest, strengthen 12 value chains, and help protect the Amazon from its source.
Roughly half of cooperatives and SMEs in AIV’s portfolio had never accessed formal loans before, and 64% qualified for additional finance after AIV investment. In the spirit of COP30, AIV calls for global climate finance to reach the Andean Amazon.
“We hope COP30 recognises this truth: there is no Amazon without the Andes. The solutions needed are already emerging,” says Aldo Soto, Managing Director and Co-founder of AIV.
AIV’s investments advance eight Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), demonstrating that climate finance delivers real impact when it empowers local leadership.
“It is possible to support local value chains that keep forests standing, turning biodiversity into opportunity,” added Soto.
In Peru, just 3.7% of national lending reaches the Amazon region: a stark reminder that unlocking finance for the region remains one of the greatest challenges ahead.
*Photo from Unsplash
Comments