Although the Amazon evokes global fascination and fuels romantic narratives – sometimes of an untouched paradise, sometimes of an endless frontier of resources – these idealized images rarely account for the multiplicity of peoples, ecosystems, productive arrangements, and socio-political challenges that coexist in a territory of continental dimensions. Ignoring such nuances has been costly: projects conceived from imported models, without dialogue with local dynamics, tend to fail or produce adverse impacts. Therefore, investments that aim to be successful in the region need to be based on methodologies and strategies anchored in the Amazonian reality, respecting cultural diversity, environmental complexity, and the different timelines of community decision-making. Only in this way will it be possible to foster a unique path to development: inclusive, resilient, and capable of reconciling economic prosperity with the preservation of the forest and the prosperity of its peoples.

The Amazon Investor Coalition, in partnership with the LACLIMA Institute, is pleased to make available to the public, private and civil society sectors the Guide on Responsible Investments in the Amazon. Developed from interviews with various stakeholders working in the region, document analysis and bibliographic review, the publication synthesizes decades of learning on directing resources to initiatives that reconcile socioeconomic return, forest conservation and climate justice.

This document aims to serve as a bridge between capital, science, and traditional knowledge, inviting all readers to transform principles into practice and to build, together, an inclusive, resilient, and prosperous Amazonian bioeconomy. More than a compendium of perspectives and experiences, this primer is an invitation to co-responsibility: investing in the Amazon requires qualified listening, respect for territorial timelines, and agreements that value local leadership.

We hope that the reflections gathered here will serve as a guide for investment decisions that reconcile economic return, community strengthening, and the protection of one of the planet's greatest socio-environmental assets. Echoing Eduardo Galeano, who saw in the "open veins" of a Latin America exhausted by its own abundance the origin of its misery, we affirm that the Amazon will break this destiny when we overcome the narrative of exploitation for one that transforms its natural and cultural wealth into shared prosperity and regeneration for peoples, forests, and futures.