Too Big to Fail: Transforming the Amazon’s Economy

This paper brings together fresh evidence and insight on the environmental, social and economic challenges that threaten the future of the Amazon. The escalating problems of deforestation, inequality and poor economic productivity are linked. The risk of systemic collapse – a ‘tipping point’ – is now too high to ignore. The Amazon is ‘too big to fail’. The urgent need is to shift from the business-as-usual ‘deforestation economy’ that serves a small elite only, to an inclusive green economy that is based on standing native forest and creates prosperity for Amazon people, while delivering public goods for Amazon nations and the world.

There are recent innovations that offer glimpses of how to tackle the problems and meet future needs. However, they usually address single issues, they fail to connect with each other, and have yet to influence mainstream governance and economic activity. In response, Fundação Amazonas Sustentável (FAS) and Green Economy Coalition (GEC) propose a way to join stakeholders together to realise a new vision, of an inclusive and sustainable Amazon green economy that enables people and nature to thrive together, at no cost to economic growth.

In September 2020, a new FAS-GEC joint venture, the Amazon Green Economy Hub, is being launched in Manaus. A new addition to GEC’s global network of seven other Hubs in the Caribbean, India, Mongolia, Peru, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda, the Amazon Hub offers stakeholders a platform and facilitation to collaborate in transforming economic policy and activities. Interested stakeholders are invited to join the Hub’s programme of learning, dialogue, consensus-building, policy reform and investment.