KUALA LUMPUR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A recent alliance of rainforest nations – sought by Brazil’s President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – could possibly be key to unlocking conservation funding and bolstering a flagging global forest pact on the COP27 climate summit, environmentalists say.
Before narrowly winning Brazil’s run-off election vote on Oct. 30, Lula began reaching out to Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) about forming a united front of tropical forest countries, in line with a top aide of the leftist leader.
Within the run-up to the COP27 U.N. climate summit, going down in Egypt from Nov. 6-18, green groups urged Brazil and other forest nations to team up to extend their bargaining power during talks with potential donors over rainforest protection.
“An alliance of nations resembling Brazil, Indonesia and the DRC – who all face similar threats – can put pressure on richer countries to speed up efforts to stop deforestation,” said Annisa Rahmawati, head of Indonesian conservation group Satya Bumi, noting Lula’s pledge to place forest protection at the center of his economic plans and policies.
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Cutting down forests has major implications for global goals to curb planetary warming, as trees absorb a couple of third of the climate-heating carbon emissions produced worldwide, but release the carbon they store after they rot or are burned.
Forests also provide food and livelihoods, clean the air and water, support human health, are an important 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 an answer.
Last yr, an area of tropical forest the scale of the Netherlands was lost, in line with monitoring service Global Forest Watch, with Brazil seeing the best rates of deforestation.
Lula hopes to show that around, promising in his election victory speech to tackle the illegal logging, mining and land-grabbing which have driven surging Amazon deforestation over the past 4 years under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.
“Having such a robust voice (like Lula) in any future alliance would amplify and speed up efforts to shift to simply and climate-friendly economic development, while ensuring our forests remain standing,” said Rahmawati.
Brazil, Indonesia and the DRC were amongst greater than 140 nations that agreed to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030 ultimately yr’s COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.
The deal, which has seen slow progress up to now, was underpinned by $19 billion in private and non-private funding commitments to speculate in protecting and restoring forests.
Since then, Germany has pledged 1.5 billion euros ($1.5 billion) per yr in international biodiversity finance, while Norway agreed a recent funding pact with Indonesia to chop 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’s also set to resume a deal to pay Brazil for leads to Amazon forest protection, frozen after destruction of the world’s largest rainforest soared under Bolsonaro.
Carbon markets, meanwhile – that are one other 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 significant potential government sellers of forest carbon credits join forces, nevertheless, that might help boost the worth paid per tonne of avoided CO2 emissions, he added.
“It’s an intriguing and potentially powerful technique to increase monetary flows, reduce deforestation, and slow climate change,” he said.
The three countries even have an amazing amount to show the world on forest conservation, said Amy Duchelle, a senior forestry officer on 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 within the Amazon, she said.
“Indonesia has (also) shown recent success in reducing deforestation,” noted Duchelle, adding that there’s a huge opportunity for these countries to guide by example and demand more forest-friendly policies from other governments.
One other positive think about forging a recent rainforest alliance is that net-zero targets and climate motion are far stronger than ten years ago, when a primary effort to form such a partnership failed, said Rod Taylor, global director for forests on the World Resources Institute, a Washington-based think-tank.
There could now be a bigger pool of finance and political momentum for the three countries to tap into “in the event that they play their cards right”, he added.
But enforcing forest protection laws in distant areas is an issue for all three, conservationists said, while Bolsonaro’s allies form the biggest 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 most of the same issues”, including the best way to monitor deforestation, stop criminal activity and support forest peoples.
Other forest nations – like Colombia – could also participate in talks and join any recent alliance at COP27 to create a “more robust and effective” coalition, he added.
“Done right, collaboration and exchange of experience between rainforest countries might help in tackling deforestation,” Jaeger said.
(Reporting by Michael Taylor; Editing by Megan Rowling. The Thomson Reuters Foundation is the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters. Visit https://www.context.news/)
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