The Amazon rainforest constitutes the world’s largest repository of biodiversity, a knowledge bank of solutions to both current and unknown challenges. This research explores the opportunities, challenges, and policy tools for the development of a biodiversity-based innovation ecosystem in the Amazon region. By explaining the ways in which the Amazon’s biodiversity be leveraged towards innovation and sustainable development strategies, this research will address one of the most important contemporary challenges for Latin America, that is the quest for economic models that respect and preserve the region’s rich natural ecosystem. By establishing an analytical link between biodiversity conservation and innovation policies, this study also contributes to challenging the widespread limiting focus of Latin American countries as consumers – rather than producers – of sustainable technologies.

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