- Brazil has proposed a new $250 billion mechanism for conserving the world’s tropical rainforests.
- The “Tropical Forests Forever” fund, sourced from governments and the private sector, would disburse money to tropical countries that achieve set thresholds for limiting deforestation.
- The proposal, conceptually similar to past initiatives, emerges amid a growing interest in nature-based solutions for addressing climate change and other environmental challenges.
- It comes as Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is repositioning the country as a leader in efforts to address climate change.
Brazil has proposed a new mechanism for conserving the world’s tropical rainforests.
During a panel at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva and Finance Minister Fernando Haddad unveiled “Tropical Forests Forever,” which aims to raise $250 billion for efforts to protect and restore the world’s tropical forests.
The funds, which would be raised from governments and the private sector, would go into an indepedently-managed fund which could be drawn upon by tropical countries that meet thresholds for limiting deforestation. Countries would see a reduction in the availability of funding if their deforestation rate increased.
The proposal, conceptually similar to past initiatives, emerges amid a growing interest in nature-based solutions for addressing climate change and other environmental challenges. It also follows a significant decrease in Amazon deforestation after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s re-election as President of Brazil.
In the first ten months since Lula’s return to office, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has dropped by 50% compared to the same period in the previous year.
During last year’s presidential campaign against incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, Lula committed to addressing rampant deforestation in the Earth’s largest rainforest. Since taking office, his administration has been working to rebuild the environmental policy framework dismantled under Bolsonaro while proposing new initiatives to protect forests. Lula has also advanced the idea of an alliance of tropical forest nations, including Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, to secure global support for conservation.
After unveiling the “Tropical Forests Forever”, Brazil continued on its tropical forests push at COP28 on Saturday by announcing the Arc of Restoration program, which will allocate up to $205 million to restore 60,000 square km (23,160 square miles) of deforested and degraded forest land in the Amazon by 2030. The funds will be provided by Brazil’s national development bank (BNDES).
What Brazil should have said at COP28 but didn’t (commentary)