In an era defined by rising water stress, intensifying droughts, and shrinking river systems, Amazon is accelerating a global strategy built not on concrete or pipelines, but on forests, wetlands, and soils. The company announced four new nature-based water restoration projects expected to replenish more than 2 billion liters of water every year, reinforcing a shift in corporate climate action from traditional offsetting toward watershed-scale ecosystem restoration.
The initiatives, spanning Mexico and the United States, form part of a growing portfolio of more than 22 nature-based water projects worldwide—collectively designed to improve or replenish over 11 billion liters of water annually, enough to fill 4,400 Olympic swimming pools. With water security increasingly intertwined with climate adaptation, Amazon’s expansion signals a maturing corporate strategy that aligns ecological restoration with long-term operational resilience.
Harnessing nature rather than engineering to restore water systems
Water scarcity is no longer confined to arid regions—it is emerging across industrial corridors, agricultural zones, and expanding urban centers. Amazon’s new projects embrace nature-based solutions: interventions that restore the ability of ecosystems to collect, purify, store, and distribute freshwater. These approaches, ranging from wetland construction to forest rehabilitation, have been shown to outperform engineered infrastructure in long-term resilience, cost-effectiveness, and ecological co-benefits.
The company’s project near Guadalajara, Mexico, illustrates this shift. In partnership with environmental organization Toroto, Amazon is funding a watershed restoration effort designed to replenish 150 million liters of water annually. Spanning 259 hectares—approximately the size of 500 football fields—the project uses strategically planted vegetation and soil management techniques to slow runoff, increase infiltration, and reduce polluted flows into the Santiago River basin, one of Mexico’s most challenged watersheds for both quality and quantity.
In the United States, Amazon’s attention turns to the drought-strained Rio Grande. Working with the National Audubon Society, the company will help prevent recurring dry spells in the river and protect two urban wetlands in New Mexico. The initiative is expected to restore 120 million liters of water each year, increasing resilience for communities and ecosystems that depend on a river experiencing some of the West’s most persistent hydrological stress.
Restoring forests to secure long-term water resilience
The largest of Amazon’s new projects lies in the southeastern United States. In the Pee Dee River basin of North Carolina, Amazon and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation are partnering to restore and protect 20,000 acres of longleaf pine forests—one of the most biodiverse and historically diminished forest systems in North America.
By reintroducing prescribed burns to remove competing vegetation and improve forest health, the project will dramatically increase the ability of soils to absorb rainfall and recharge rivers and aquifers. With an expected 1.6 billion liters of annual water replenishment, the scale of the intervention demonstrates the hydrological power of large, healthy forests.
This focus on ecological restoration reflects a critical insight increasingly embraced by climate scientists and water managers: ecosystem health and water security are inseparable. Healthy soils act as natural reservoirs. Wetlands filter pollutants and buffer floods. Forests regulate rainfall, stabilize watersheds, and maintain base flows in rivers. Amazon’s strategy taps into this interconnectedness.
Closing global water gaps through ecosystem-scale interventions
Around the world, the reliability of water systems underpins energy supply, agriculture, biodiversity, urban resilience, and economic stability. For multinational corporations, water scarcity is increasingly a business risk. For governments, it is a national security and development priority.
Amazon’s global water initiatives intersect with these priorities in three ways:
- First, they offer low-cost, high-impact restoration models that can be replicated across stressed regions.
- Second, they complement public investments by accelerating watershed rehabilitation in areas where local and national budgets remain constrained.
- Third, they contribute to broader climate adaptation outcomes, helping communities cope with the combined stressors of heat, drought, and declining water quality.
As Amazon expands this portfolio, the company is aligning its corporate climate strategy with emerging global targets on nature, water, and resilience—including SDG 6 (Clean Water), SDG 13 (Climate Action), and SDG 15 (Life on Land).
A rising benchmark for corporate water stewardship
With over 22 nature-based water projects announced globally, Amazon is signaling that corporate climate leadership increasingly requires more than carbon accounting—it requires ecosystem stewardship. The company’s move toward watershed-scale restoration mirrors a broader trend: multinationals recognizing that climate adaptation depends on healthy natural systems, not just clean energy or supply chain efficiencies.
For policymakers, these initiatives highlight the growing role that private sector investment can play in strengthening national water security strategies. For investors, they reflect a new category of climate-aligned interventions where ecological outcomes and long-term risk mitigation overlap.
As water scarcity expands across regions and sectors, Amazon’s projects represent a rising benchmark for what corporate water stewardship looks like in practice: measurable, ecosystem-based, and deeply integrated into local environmental realities.
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