As COP27 kicks off, Brazil eyes alliance of rainforest countries

An alliance of Brazil, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo could add pressure to accelerate worldwide deforestation efforts.

|
Enrique Marcarian/Reuters
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva speaks during the inauguration of a hospital care unit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, September, 9, 2015. After leaving office in 2010, Lula defeated former President Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil's Oct. 30 presidential election.

A new alliance of rainforest nations – sought by Brazil’s President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – could be key to unlocking conservation funding and bolstering a flagging global forest pact at the COP27 climate summit, environmentalists say.

Before narrowly winning Brazil’s run-off election vote on Oct. 30, Lula – as Brazil’s new president is universally known – began reaching out to Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) about forming a united front of tropical forest countries, according to a top aide of the leftist leader.

In the run-up to the COP27 U.N. climate summit, starting Sunday taking place in Egypt until Nov. 18, green groups urged Brazil and other forest nations to team up to increase their bargaining power during talks with potential donors over rainforest protection.

“An alliance of countries such as Brazil, Indonesia and the DRC – who all face similar threats – can put pressure on richer countries to accelerate efforts to stop deforestation,” said Annisa Rahmawati, head of Indonesian conservation group Satya Bumi, noting Lula’s pledge to put forest protection at the heart of his economic plans and policies.

Cutting down forests has major implications for global goals to curb planetary warming, as trees absorb about a third of the climate-heating carbon emissions produced worldwide, but release the carbon they store when they rot or are burned.

Forests also provide food and livelihoods, clean the air and water, support human health, are an essential habitat for wildlife, regulate rainfall and offer flood protection.

But as forest-rich countries grapple with energy and food price pressures linked to Russia’s war on Ukraine, on top of fiscal pain from the COVID-19 pandemic, tapping into natural resources is seen by many as a solution.

Last year, an area of tropical forest the size of the Netherlands was lost, according to monitoring service Global Forest Watch, with Brazil seeing the highest rates of deforestation.

Lula hopes to turn that around, promising in his election victory speech to tackle the illegal logging, mining and land-grabbing that have driven surging Amazon deforestation over the past four years under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.

“Having such a strong voice [like Lula] in any future alliance would amplify and accelerate efforts to shift to just and climate-friendly economic development, while ensuring our forests remain standing,” said Ms. Rahmawati.

Norway cash returns

Brazil, Indonesia, and the DRC were among more than 140 nations that agreed to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030 at last year’s COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland.

The deal, which has seen slow progress so far, was underpinned by $19 billion in public and private funding commitments to invest in protecting and restoring forests.

Since then, Germany has pledged 1.5 billion euros ($1.5 billion) per year in international biodiversity finance, while Norway agreed a new funding pact with Indonesia to cut its carbon emissions by conserving the rainforest – potentially opening the door to more support from other donors.

Norway’s environment minister said in a social media post this week that it is also set to resume a deal to pay Brazil for results in Amazon forest protection, frozen after destruction of the world’s largest rainforest soared under Mr. Bolsonaro.

Carbon markets, meanwhile – which are another tool to slow deforestation – have been hampered by low prices, said James Deutsch, CEO at Rainforest Trust, a U.S.-based nonprofit.

If the three most important potential government sellers of forest carbon credits join forces, however, that could help boost the price paid per tonne of avoided CO2 emissions, he added.

“It is an intriguing and potentially powerful strategy to increase monetary flows, reduce deforestation, and slow climate change,” he said.

The three countries also have a tremendous amount to teach the world on forest conservation, said Amy Duchelle, a senior forestry officer at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Brazil was the climate-change success story of the early 2000s when its government – led then by Lula – slashed deforestation rates in the Amazon, she said.

“Indonesia has (also) shown recent success in reducing deforestation,” noted Ms. Duchelle, adding that there is a huge opportunity for these countries to lead by example and demand more forest-friendly policies from other governments.

Shared challenges

Another positive factor in forging a new rainforest alliance is that net-zero targets and climate action are far stronger than ten years ago, when a first effort to form such a partnership failed, said Rod Taylor, global director for forests at the World Resources Institute, a Washington-based think-tank.

There could now be a larger pool of finance and political momentum for the three countries to tap into “if they play their cards right”, he added.

But enforcing forest protection laws in remote areas is a problem for all three, conservationists said, while Mr. Bolsonaro’s allies form the largest bloc in Brazil’s Congress, which could hinder Lula‘s policy push.

Toerris Jaeger, executive director of the Oslo-based Rainforest Foundation Norway, said the potential partners “face many of the same issues”, including how to monitor deforestation, stop illegal activity and support forest peoples.

Other forest nations – like Colombia – could also take part in talks and join any new alliance at COP27 to create a “more robust and effective” coalition, he added.

“Done right, collaboration and exchange of experience between rainforest countries can help in tackling deforestation,” Mr. Jaeger said.

This story was reported by Reuters

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to As COP27 kicks off, Brazil eyes alliance of rainforest countries
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/2022/1106/As-COP27-kicks-off-Brazil-eyes-alliance-of-rainforest-countries
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe