France, Brazil Announce Billion-Dollar Amazon Conservation Plan

The money will be spread over the next four years to protect the Amazon rainforest.

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The Brazilian and French presidents on Tuesday announced a conservation investment plan involving €1 billion (US$1.1 billion) to protect the Amazon rainforest over the next four years.

The announcement came as part of a trip by French President Emmanuel Macron to Brazil to meet his counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. It was the first visit by a French president in 11 years as the two countries seek to “intensify cooperation” and “strengthen trade agreements” after spats with former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

During a meeting in the Brazilian city of Belém – host of the UN climate summit COP30 – the presidents said the investment program, a collaboration of state-run Brazilian banks and the French Development Agency, will cover the bioeconomy of the Brazilian Amazon and French Guiana . The French overseas territory bordering the Brazilian state of Amapá is home to 1.4% of the Amazon rainforest.

The Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest – spanning 6.9 million square kilometers (2.72 million square miles) and covering around 40% of the South American continent – ​​is also one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems, home to about three million species of plants and animals as well as one million Indigenous people. Unfortunately, rampant deforestation in the region has resulted in the loss of huge swamps of land and biodiversity. 2022 data suggests that about 20% of the Amazon rainforest has already been deforested and a further 6% was “highly degraded.”

Under Lula’s predecessor, climate denialist Jair Bolsonaro, deforestation rates soared to record high levels. According to data from both the Brazilian government and Imazon, an NGO that independently tracks forest destruction, deforestation was distinctly higher under the Bolsonaro administration than at any time during Brazil’s two previous presidencies.

Following its re-election in 2022, Lula pledged to achieve zero deforestation by 2030, and recent developments have already shown significant progress. According to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (ISPE) figures, the area under deforestation alerts in the Amazon fell 50% in 2023 compared to 2022.

But while Amazon deforestation has seen a sharp decrease since Lula’s re-election, thanks to a series of interventions such as the crackdown on illegal miners and a pledge to end deforestation in the Amazon by 2030, a study published February 2024 suggested that “unprecedented stress ” from a combination of climate change-related drivers are bringing it closer to reaching a tipping point by mid-century.

“Once we cross this tipping point, we will lose control of how the system will behave,” said ecologist Bernardo Flores of the University of Santa Catarina in Brazil, lead author of the report. “The forest will die by itself.”

More on the topic: Up to 47% of Amazon Rainforest At Risk of Collapse by Mid-Century Due to ‘Unprecedented Stress’ From Global Warming and Deforestation

“We have a commitment to achieve zero deforestation in the Amazon by 2030. It wasn’t anyone who asked for it, no convention. It was we who decided that we will take the fight against deforestation as a profession of faith,” Lula said on Tuesday, renewing his pledge to continue with the demarcation of Indigenous lands and the creation of forest reserves.

In a joint statement, Brazil and France expressed a shared commitment to a comprehensive agenda, which encompasses the creation of a Franco-Brazilian roadmap for the bioeconomy and protection of tropical forests. This collaborative approach aims to develop innovative financial instruments, market mechanisms, and payments for environmental services to effectively halt deforestation by decade’s end.

During a meeting with Indigenous leaders on Combu Island – where Indigenous leader Raoni Metuktire was decorated with the prestigious Legion of Honor medal for efforts at conserving the rainforest – Macron said the two countries will join forces to fight against illegal mining and “all short-term financial interests that come here to threaten the forest.”

“What we want to do is to preserve, to know better, to multiply scientific cooperation, to build strategies to support indigenous peoples and, together, to carry out actions of investments in bioeconomy so that this increases,” he said.

Featured image: Ricardo Stuckert/Government of Brazil