- Amazon Summit in Belém: South American Nations Collaborate to Combat Deforestation and Climate Change
- President Lula Calls for Regional Cooperation and Common Policies
- Carbon Credits: A Growing Industry in Deforestation-Hit Pará, Brazil
This week, delegates arriving at the international airport in Belém are being greeted with a lively “Boi de mascara” performance. The entire city is reveling in the limelight as it hosts the Amazon Summit.
It feels somewhat preparatory for 2025 when the city will host COP30. These two events are significant for this region of Brazil, which often feels neglected. As the capital of Pará, the Brazilian state with the highest incidence of deforestation, Belém is also strategically located.
This summit was convened by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to gather together the eight South American nations that share a portion of the Amazon.
In his opening remarks, he urged these nations to recommence cooperation and adopt common policies to combat deforestation and illegal mining.
In the meantime, the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, has called for the establishment of an international court to prosecute environmental offenses committed in the Amazon. Additionally, he advocated for a complete moratorium on oil exploration in the region, a proposal supported by indigenous leaders.
This first summit in years will ensure a regional response to crime, deforestation, and climate change.
“I believe this meeting in Belém should be regarded as a watershed moment,” President Lula said.
“I’ve participated in several meetings, and they often approve a document, and then nothing occurs. This meeting is the first opportunity for individuals to demonstrate to the world what they intend to do.”
President Lula has pledged to reverse Jair Bolsonaro’s trend of increasing deforestation. In July of this year, there was a 66% decrease in deforestation compared to the same month in 2022, and Lula has pledged to achieve zero deforestation by 2030.
Robson Goncalves Machado, a resident of an Acangatá riverside community, says, “You have no idea how much pressure the Bolsonaro administration exerted on our community.” “Landowners are circling the land in planes, and soya farmers want to purchase the land to deforest it.”
Robson resides on the banks of one of the countless waterways that meander throughout Ilha do Marajó.
The world’s largest river island, Marajó, situated on Brazil’s northern shore near Belém, the Amazon’s easternmost metropolis.
Robson’s community can only be reached by boat, which takes 13 hours overnight from Belém. It may feel isolated, but he is well aware of the demand from outsiders for their land.
While Pará is well-known as the epicenter of Brazil’s deforestation, it has become an attractive location for another burgeoning forest industry – carbon credits – in recent years.
A polluting organization can purchase a credit equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide emissions.
For every tonne of CO2 emitted, the credit represents a tonne of CO2 that was captured, as the organization’s payments are intended to fund carbon-reduction initiatives.
These credits are purchased and sold, and their prices are established in the same manner as any other market. With the World Bank estimating the carbon credit market in the forest to be worth $210bn (£165bn) annually, there is a tremendous amount of opportunity.
The days leading up to the summit, which is a diplomatic event, were filled with discussions on topics such as the carbon market.
Acangatá, a community in Robson, recently inked a letter of intent with one of the area’s carbon credit companies.
It has not yet begun in earnest, but the community has agreed to participate in courses such as sustainable forestry management, chicken husbandry, and biogas initiatives.
Robson states that at the outset there were numerous uncertainties. “In the municipality, there was a massive land grab involving millions of reais worth of carbon that was sold but not distributed to the community.”
Carbon credit companies operating in Ilha do Marajó have been accused of pressuring individuals into contracts, without providing them with sufficient information about the investment they will receive in exchange.
Since then, the public prosecutor of Pará has intervened to halt initiatives that have raised concerns. Even though President Lula has pledged to regulate the market, it remains unregulated.
Bianca Teles and her family live two hours by canoe from Robson’s in a community where cassava flour is their primary source of income. The $200 (£157) per week they earn is insufficient.
Even when a carbon credit company offered to help construct a school and health center, she remained unconvinced.
“It’s not that transparent,” she said. We cannot see how this would provide us with a secure existence. Constantly on the defensive, we dread the consequences of our actions. Due to these accounts, we decided not to sign the contract.”
As a result of the absence of the state in the Amazon, public services are inadequate and people feel abandoned. Consequently, businesses frequently cover the void – for both good and bad.
“The absence of the state creates a no man’s land where anything can occur,” explains prosecutor Elise Moreira.
On the opposite side of Ilha do Marajó, Hernandez Pantoja displays his acai and cacao plantation with pride. Carbonext, a Brazilian carbon credit corporation that has received investment funding from Shell, supplied the equipment and training. The credits will also be distributed to the community.
Mr. Pantoja states, “Just last year, we removed five illegal sawmills from our property.”
The community is aware that defending their land from illegal harvesting is a difficult task. He argues that the only path forward is to form a partnership with a company that has the resources and a plan to ensure sustainable forestry.
No longer do we wish to cut down trees, but we seek assistance in maintaining our forest.
Important to Carbonext is empowering communities to care for their land. Likewise, empowering the region as a whole is essential.
“When the global north approaches the global south and declares, ‘I have the solution,’ we respond, ‘Really? “Have you ever visited Amazon?” asks CEO Janana Dallan.
“How can you solve that problem if you have never been to that location? You are not firmly planted on the earth. Therefore, it is simple to assert, “I have the solution.”
People on the ground in the Amazon, as well as those attending the summit this week, are determined to make South America’s position on climate change heard.
