EDITOR’S NOTE: Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, together with the solutions. Rolex’s Perpetual Planet Initiative has partnered with CNN to drive awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to inspire positive action.
Every day, the Amazon releases billions of tons of water into the atmosphere that are carried by winds toward other regions of South America. These vast flows of moisture, known as “flying rivers,” deliver the rains that supply forests, cities, crops and power generation far beyond the rainforest.
But for the process to keep working, the Amazon ecosystem must stay connected, and the forest that produces and transports that moisture must be protected.
For decades, the Gaia Amazonas Foundation has worked with Indigenous communities and governments to strengthen the management of their territories, give them a greater say in decision making about the forest, and bring their traditional knowledge into conservation policies and strategies. The idea is that preserving the flying rivers also means preserving the conditions that allow the Amazon to keep pumping water to the rest of the continent.
