South America

A region of great wealth in landscapes, biodiversity and culture, we develop projects and initiatives aligned with the five areas of the IUCN Global Programme.

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A megadiverse region

South America is an extremely important continent for several reasons: high biodiversity, broad endemism and great wealth in cultural terms, as well as its enormous economic potential.

The continent faces a great diversity of challenges and environmental degradation processes of great magnitude on which the Regional Office concentrates its efforts, with the support of its Members and strategic partners.

40%

Description

of the planet's biodiversity, 25% of its forests and 26% of its freshwater resources, is concentrated in South America.

About us

Since October 1991, the IUCN Regional Office for South America has been located in Quito, Ecuador. In addition, we have an office based in Brasilia, which coordinates the institution's activities in Brazil.

IUCN, One Union in Action

The work priorities of the Regional Office for South America are based on the Programme "Nature 2030: One Union in Action", which focuses on 5 areas: people, land, water, oceans and climate. These areas are present in the focus of the discussion and work of the Union, building sustainability towards 2030.

©CONAF

Our Regional Office works in different lines of action: Conservation of species and ecosystems; Management of protected areas and other effective conservation measures; Governance, gender, territorial and water resource management; Landscape restoration; Ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change; Bioeconomy and sustainable business promotion.

©Sergio Garrido, UICN

In the region, IUCN has 105 Members, 8 National Committees and 1 Regional Committee.

Rio Doce mouth, 2018
Story

Rio Doce: governance beyond reparation

The existing institutions were not prepared to respond to the disaster caused by the Samarco dam collapse.*