Protecting and investing in Brazil’s Amazon coast for a climate-resilient future
Story by Kaila Ferrari
Photo Credit: Enrico Marone for Rare
Brazil's Amazon coast is a natural marvel of ecological and cultural significance. Here, the freshwater currents of the Amazon River converge with the saltwater tides of the Atlantic Ocean to create a dynamic tropical forest ecosystem teeming with life. Nestled within this Amazonian biome is the world's largest continuous mangrove forest, stretching nearly 14,000 sq km across the states of Amapá, Pará, and Maranhão.
Centuries of evolution have shaped Brazil’s mangroves into resilient ecosystems, capable of thriving in high salinity and withstanding the Amazon Basin’s extreme tidal fluctuation. Red mangrove trees rise over 70 feet tall into the sky, their contorting aerial roots forming dense coastal thickets where biodiversity flourishes above and below the water. In the canopy, primates, birds, and insects move through a maze of branches, while beneath the surface, fish and invertebrates use the mangroves' thick underwater root systems as nurseries and breeding grounds.
Mangroves near Peruquara fishing community, located where Quatipuru Bay encounters the Atlantic ocean.
Mangroves near Peruquara fishing community, located where Quatipuru Bay encounters the Atlantic ocean.
Life on the Amazon coast is intrinsically linked to the mangrove ecosystems. At the mouth of the Amazon River in Pará state, 80,000+ people across 500+ communities rely on the mangroves for survival. “Our mangrove has value. It is worth gold — it is worth everything because it is from here that we derive our livelihood," says Renilde Piedade da Silva, a fisherwoman and Mothers of the Mangrove community leader from Pará state’s São Caetano de Odivelas municipality.
The mangroves act as a living barrier against the growing threats of climate change. Thick aerial roots and vegetation buffer houses from powerful storm surges and mitigate coastal erosion.
Mangroves are not just the coast’s guardians — they are also powerful allies in the fight against climate change. Scientists recognize these coastal forests as nature-based solutions for climate change thanks to their unique ability to sequester and store "blue carbon" — carbon captured by the world's oceans and coastal ecosystems. Mangroves store up to 10 times more carbon per hectare than terrestrial forests and can store this carbon for hundreds to thousands of years if undisturbed. Brazil's Amazonian mangroves also hold 8.5% of global mangrove carbon stocks, accounting for 13.5% of the carbon buried in the world's mangroves annually.
Despite their role as vital ecological systems, Brazil's mangroves are under threat. Shrimp aquaculture, timber production, oil and gas, deforestation, and unsustainable fishing imperil mangrove forests and biodiversity on the Amazon coast. Without continued protection, these mangroves could be lost — further endangering the coastal communities that rely on them.
Empowering communities through collaborative conservation
One of Brazil’s most innovative responses to this challenge is establishing extractive reserves, known as RESEX — protected areas that grant special user rights to traditional communities, fishers, crabbers, and oyster gleaners as part of a national management strategy to balance ecosystem protection with community livelihood. The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MMA), by way of the Chico Mendes Institute of Biodiversity (ICMBio), co-manages Pará's 14 RESEX through management bodies (Deliberative Councils). These management bodies ensure that several stakeholders, including fishermen, fisherwomen, local communities, municipalities, universities, and subnational governments, have a voice in conservation management decision-making.
Lisângela Cassiano, an analyst at ICMBio, owes much of the management’s success to integrating Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) with scientific knowledge from researchers and management bodies. “When people propose to collaborate with the government, the result is incredible,” says Lisângela. She added that effective participatory management across Pará takes a whole network of people — fishers, women, youth, NGOs, and researchers — working together to benefit all.
Global conservation organization Rare plays a pivotal role in strengthening these community efforts. With its people-centered approach to conservation, Rare leads efforts alongside ICMBio and local leaders to strengthen effective, community-based small-scale fisheries management at local, subnational, national, and global levels and guarantee preferential rights for coastal communities.
Shared management is important because it allows for social participation and all interested parties to be involved in the decision-making process for this territorial management. It also creates a sense of co-responsibility."
Through its Fish Forever program, Rare inspires collective action by communities, leaders, and other stakeholders to manage coastal marine ecosystems sustainably. Its approach integrates a wide range of innovative financial mechanisms to support sustainable mangrove conservation at scale while securing climate resilience, food security, and economic benefits at the community level.
Rare’s involvement in supporting coastal communities and their ecosystems goes beyond Brazil. As a founding member of the Global Mangrove Alliance, Rare is part of a worldwide movement of 70 NGOs working to restore and protect 15 million hectares of mangroves globally by 2030. Through the Mangrove Breakthrough action plan, the Alliance aims to unlock $4 billion in investments for coastal ecosystems, leveraging mangroves as a key component of global climate solutions.
A call for climate finance
Only 1% of global climate finance is allocated to marine and coastal ecosystems, leaving large room for investments in Brazil's mangrove conservation. "Look at this climate mitigation, this silent yet overwhelming fight that mangroves carry out on our behalf," says Matheus Adams Pereira Almeida, a Cuíra Collective youth leader from the fishing village Vila de Pesqueiro. "What I want for the protection of our mangroves and extractive reserves communities is climate finance."
As Brazil prepares to host the UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 30) in November 2025 in the Amazonian city of Belém in Pará, the global spotlight will turn to nature-based solutions like mangrove conservation. This event offers a unique opportunity to elevate the mitigation and adaptation value of blue carbon ecosystems and channel new investments into sustainable, community-led action. For the people of the Amazon coast, COP30 is more than a diplomatic meeting. It is a chance to secure the future of their way of life and demonstrate the power of collaborative conservation on a global stage.
Through local leadership, innovative partnerships, and increased financial investment, the Amazon coast can remain a thriving, climate-resilient region — an example of how communities and protected ecosystems can shape a sustainable future for the planet.
Join us in amplifying the voices of coastal communities. Together, we can protect the Amazon’s mangroves and safeguard the livelihoods of those who depend on them.
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