Amazon disasters cross borders. Its risk governance doesn't.
Since 2000, major Amazon floods have recurred roughly every four years, compared with every twenty before 1950. Dry seasons are lengthening, and fire risk is rising with them. These hazards rarely respect national borders, cascading across the basin's shared rivers and forests.
A new UNU-CRIS Research Report offers a comparative assessment of how the eight sovereign Amazonian countries are managing these risks. Drawing on sources in English, Spanish and Portuguese, alongside interviews with practitioners, it maps national strategies against the four priorities of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. It also reviews regional cooperation through the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), the OAS, the Andean Community and MERCOSUR.
The findings are mixed. Disaster risk governance is strengthening across the basin, but capacity remains uneven. Early warning and civil protection systems are well established, yet largely reactive. Risk data stays locked in national systems unable to monitor transboundary floods, droughts and fires. Financing still favours recovery over prevention. And although Indigenous territories cover roughly 30% of the basin, Indigenous knowledge is rarely integrated into formal strategies. Regional cooperation through ACTO, meanwhile, relies on voluntary rather than binding mechanisms.
Building on the outcomes of COP30 in Belém, the report calls for shared regional data systems, joint protocols and stronger multilevel governance, with meaningful Indigenous participation. It also urges closer integration of disaster risk reduction with water, land-use and climate policy, where many Amazonian risks originate.
Its message to policymakers is clear: the commitments made in Belém must now become concrete cross-border action.
