Deforestation is a major problem in the Amazon region as a whole, and in Brazil in particular. To date, nearly 800,000km² of Brazil’s original 4m km² of Amazon forest has been depleted due to a variety of economic activities. These include uncontrolled logging, large scale farming, mining, large road construction project and dams, among others. Combined, these activities have raised serious concerns about the stability of the Amazon rainforests, some of which has already been converted into drier savannahs known as cerrado.

There is a perceived need to discuss the causes but also the possible solutions for the problems the Amazon region is facing today, and seek sustainable solutions for them. Against this background, the symposium "Amazon 2030- Sustainability Issues in the World´s Largest Rainforests Region" is being organised by the Inter-University Sustainable Development Programme (IUSDRP), the International Climate Change Information and Research Programme (ICCIRP), Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (Germany), Manchester Metropolitan University (UK) and the Federal University of Western Pará (UFOPA), in collaboration with various organisations.