On 4 November 2025, Prince William addressed the United for Wildlife Global Summit in Rio de Janeiro, unveiling a new alliance with the Coordination of Indigenous Organisations of the Brazilian Amazon, the Podáali Fund, Rainforest Foundation Norway and Rewild. The Royal Foundation’s United for Wildlife programme will coordinate legal aid and emergency funding for Indigenous leaders across nine Amazon states, covering roughly 110 million hectares. DiCaprio appeared by video, urging world leaders to act before the UN climate conference in Belém.
Deforestation in 2024 reached 1.7 million hectares, a 34 percent jump from 2023, while 2.8 million hectares burned in fire‑affected lands, combined a record 4.5 million hectares. Brazil alone accounted for 54.7 percent of the total, with Bolivia adding 27.3 percent, according to a June 2025 satellite analysis by the Monitoring of the Andes Amazon Program.
Indigenous communities occupy 27 percent of Brazil’s Amazon, yet violence against defenders spiked to 393 cases in 2023‑24, a third of which involved killings or disappearances. The partnership’s data platform will map threats in real time to safeguard these groups.
The alliance will establish an emergency response fund and secure communication networks, aiming to evacuate at-risk leaders within 48 hours of an alert. Implementation will begin next month, with the first legal aid outreach scheduled for early December.