The South America fire crisis is solvable.

The South America Fire Fund is a $100 million effort to end destructive fire across the Amazon, the Pantanal, and the Chiquitano dry forest.

South America has entered a new era of fire: faster and more destructive than ever before.

In 2024, an area of about 28-34 million hectares burned across the Amazon, Chiquitano Dry Forest, and Pantanal — roughly the size of the state of Arizona. In Brazil, destruction was 117% above the historical average. Fire is now the leading cause of tropical forest loss.

These forests did not evolve with fire. In the Amazon, almost every ignition is human: a pasture burn or a clearing fire that escapes into forest left dry by drought. The damage travels. Smoke from these fires kills an estimated 12,000 people a year, and Indigenous communities face death rates up to six times the continental average. In the Pantanal, the 2020 fires killed an estimated 17 million vertebrates in the first 48 hours alone.

The next test is already here. The current El Niño is shaping up to be one of the strongest on record, which could have catastrophic effects for late-season fires in 2026, as well as a record-breaking fire season in 2027.

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The world must act now.

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The South America Fire Fund is a Renaissance Philanthropy fund, led by Conservation X Labs. The project is anchored with initial support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

What people start, people can stop.

No single tool ends destructive fire. It takes changing the incentives that start fires, catching the ones that escape, and giving everyone involved the same picture of what's burning. We're funding all of it, in the same places, at the same time, and measuring whether it works.

Prevent:

Make not burning pay. Farm credit and insurance tied to fire practice, fire written into jurisdictional REDD+ programs, burn-window guidance instead of blanket bans.

Restore:

Restoration isn't cleanup, it's prevention. The window after a fire is months, not years, before invasive grasses take hold. We're funding fast intervention and the native seed supply chains that landscape-scale restoration will need.

Detect and respond:

Next-generation satellite detection, direct satellite connectivity beyond cell coverage, sensor networks, drones, advanced suppression methods, and more. Community and Indigenous brigades equipped and trained to a common standard.

Decide:

Finer-scale models of fire risk and spread, and decision tools a brigade leader can use on a phone. Today responders work from fragmented platforms; we're funding one picture.

Invent:

An open call for what doesn't exist yet, field-tested with communities in the region. The first challenge candidates come from where experts say the bottlenecks are, including native seed supply at scale.

Coordinate:

Fire crosses borders,. Agencies don't. We're funding shared protocols, joint training, and a common operating picture across Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru, so a fire that starts in one country isn't fought twice from two directions.

Six landscapes, three countries.

Fire isn't diffuse. In 2024, 10% of fires in Brazil in 2024 caused 60% of the burned area. We don't have to stop every fire to break the cycle — just prioritize the worst ones. So we start in six places, chosen for fire risk that's serious but tractable, partners already willing, evaluability, baseline capacity, and more. They're deliberately different from one another: for example, the agricultural frontier at Paragominas, the seasonal wetlands of Corumbá, and the dry forest at Roboré. What works across six contexts this varied will scale across countries. Each one is run by local organizations with decades in that landscape.

Go Deeper:
Read the plans.

SAFF was co-developed with hundreds of the world's foremost fire experts, frontline workers, Indigenous leaders, and environmental nonprofits. As part of that 18-month planning process, the Conservation X Labs team wrote a comprehensive gameplan. You can read some of it below.

A crisis this big requires the largest coalition we can assemble.

Join the Coalition

The Coalition

The speed and scale of this crisis demands that we all respond. The South America Fire Fund is led by Conservation X Labs and Renaissance Philanthropy, anchored by a $30 million commitment from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation toward a $100 million goal, as well as additional support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Many other organizations have already joined the cause:

We have the blueprint. Now we're building the resources.

If you fund climate, forests, public health, or technology, there's a place here for you. If your organization works on fire — or in these landscapes — we want to hear from you. You can also sign up to receive news and updates as the project progresses.

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The South America fire crisis is solvable.

The South America Fire Fund is a $100 million effort to end destructive fire across the Amazon, the Pantanal, and the Chiquitano dry forest.

South America has entered a new era of fire: faster and more destructive than ever before.

What people start, people can stop.

Prevent:

Restore:

Detect and respond:

Decide:

Invent:

Coordinate:

Six landscapes, three countries.

Go Deeper: Read the plans.

A crisis this big requires the largest coalition we can assemble.

The Coalition

We have the blueprint. Now we're building the resources.

Go Deeper:
Read the plans.