The Declaration of Forests, announced this Tuesday (2) by the British presidency of COP26, brings together at least 124 signatory countries. Among them, on the one hand, are the holders of most of the world’s forests, including Brazil.
On the other, the richest nations, which pledge to jointly allocate US$ 12 billion in public funds, by 2025, to finance forest protection. The private sector also joined in the announcement, pledging another $7.2 billion.
Although the two funds were announced along with the declaration, they are not included in the document, but form the Global Commitment to Financing Forests. The Declaration of Forests, on the other hand, has six principles; five of them cite sustainable agriculture and sustainable land use.
Just one page long, the declaration also commits to “strengthening shared efforts” for forest conservation and the resilience of indigenous and rural communities, as well as facilitating funding flows.
At the top of the Ministry of Agriculture, the declaration’s second principle was received with concern, citing the trade in commodities unrelated to deforestation.
Without giving details, the item endorses the “facilitation of trade and development policies, internationally and domestically, that promote sustainable development and the production and consumption of sustainable commodities, that work for the mutual benefit of countries and that do not lead to deforestation and to land degradation”.
The fear on the part of the government is that the defense of sustainable criteria — now with the endorsement of forest holders — will be taken to the World Trade Organization.
“It is a text of principles, a political document. It is a basis for future negotiations”, says Suely Araújo, a specialist in public policies at the Climate Observatory.
“We would have to know how this money will come in and under what conditions,” he adds.
“[O texto da declaração] it is broad so that it can accommodate the plans of the countries and for the national arrangements to dialogue with this international ambition. It is a step that signals with money. Now, it needs to link resources with results,” stated the former minister of the Environment, Izabella Teixeira.
The announcement of US$ 12 billion of public funds brings together twelve donors: United Kingdom, Norway, South Korea, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Japan, France, United States, European Union and Germany. According to the presidency of COP26, the amount should be allocated by 2025 to eligible countries as defined by the ODA (Official Development Assistance) of the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) — which includes developing countries like Brazil.
The $7.2 billion pledged by the private sector includes donors to various corporate-related initiatives. Among them, Coalizão Leaf, aimed at offsetting emissions through forest conservation, indicated the contribution of US$ 500 million.
The IFACC (Innovative Finance for the Amazon, Cerrado and Chaco) initiative signaled the contribution of US$ 3 billion, aimed at delinking deforestation from the production of soy and cattle in Latin America.
For WWF-Brasil, the agreement is a message from the international market. “In just two days, COP26 has already made it clear that international markets will not make room for those whose hands are dirty with carbon,” the NGO stated in a statement.
The positioning of the Climate Observatory recalled that the ad is the second of its kind in the last seven years.
“In 2014, in New York, dozens of countries signed a declaration promising to eliminate deforestation by 2020. Brazil has never signed the text. The Glasgow document, which should be one of the main results of COP26, stretches the deadline and counts on the accession of all the large tropical countries,” says the organization.
The journalist traveled at the invitation of Instituto Clima e Sociedade.
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