The British government released this Monday (1) the details of an international agreement with one hundred world leaders to limit and reverse deforestation in the coming decades. Among the signatories are Canada, Russia, Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Brazilian biologist Roberto Waack, chairman of the Instituto Arapyaú, and one of the spokespersons for the Concertation for the Amazon, explained to RFI Brasil the main points of the agreement signed between the directors, which aims to associate development and environmental protection.
“The Declaration of Forests is inserted in the context of recognizing the value of forests for the world, for environmental activity, for geopolitics and for economic development,” he said.
According to him, one of the pillars of the document revolves around political actions in favor of conservation. “Deforestation is not acceptable at this time of humanity and in future signs of global warming.”
Other details should be released this Tuesday (2) about the agreement, which also mentions the protection of indigenous peoples. For many representatives of the sector, recalls the Brazilian representative, the goal of keeping the temperature increase at 1.5ºC is only possible by protecting the forests and the people who inhabit them.
“It is impossible to imagine this goal without the Amazon or the Amazon being deforested”, he reiterates.
sustainable agricultural production
The second pillar of the Declaration of Forests, he affirms, refers to an “expanded” view that only command and control measures for deforestation are not enough. Parallel actions are also needed, aimed at developing sustainable agricultural and food production.
“There must be a strengthening of the economy of commodity production combined with conservation, which is fully possible,” he argues.
“There is no other country in the world that is in such an interesting and competitive position as Brazil to combine production with the conservation of environmental commodities, and place this in a context of food production taking into account everything connected with negative externalities of production, among them, dismantling”, he analyses.
“It is possible to produce large quantities of food without deforesting and Brazil can do that. The business sector signals this all the time”, he defends. This objective involves, as he mentioned earlier, the tracking of production and supply chains.
Indian people
The Brazilian spokesperson for European Climate also recalls that one of the important pillars of the agreement signed between the leaders is the recognition that, in the forests, there are and live very important communities for the planet, such as indigenous peoples.
“It is necessary that the development system of the forest world has a process of inclusion of these peoples”, he says. “It is possible to produce and conserve on a large scale, with traceability.”
He also cites the financial system, “which must be able to provide resources for conservation and restoration and, at the same time, support forest and indigenous communities.”
In the agreement announced this Monday (1), twelve countries, including France, pledged to mobilize US$ 12 billion in public funds between 2021 and 2025 for forest conservation. In addition to this amount, US$7.2 billion in private investments are planned.
Under the agreement, around US$ 1.1 billion will also be earmarked for protecting the Congo basin, which is home to the second largest tropical forest in the world.
In addition, 30 financial institutions, representing US$ 8,700 billion in global assets, will commit to stop investments in activities that contribute to deforestation.
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