今昔之感网Encouraged by Colombia86bet.comBrazil, upfor new fundto protecttropical the countries of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization are expected to sign a joint declaration in support for the Tropical Forest Forever Fund. The fund is to be unveiled at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP30, in Brazil in November this year.
The signature will take place during the new edition of the Amazon Summit in Bogotá, Colombia, next Friday (Aug. 22), to be attended by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. He is expected to travel to the neighboring country the day before.
The fund will be a financing mechanism aimed at preserving these forests, present in about 70 countries and crucial for regulating rainfall and capturing carbon in the atmosphere.
During the summit, a meeting with nonprofits should welcome suggestions for measures to combat global warming and other urgent environmental challenges.
In addition to the declaration, the meeting is expected to see the approval of the Bogotá Charter, reinforcing the countries’ commitments to efforts such as combating deforestation and promoting the sustainable development of the Amazon biome.
“It will be a declaration with an emphasis on climate change, but it should also take stock of all the actions implemented since the Belém summit in 2023,” said Ambassador João Marcelo Queiroz, director of the South American Department of Brazil’s Foreign Ministry, at a press conference on the summit.
Diplomatic strategy
Through the endorsement from the Amazon countries, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry intends to boost the reach of the new fund, which could raise USD 125 billion in public and private resources to be reinvested in forest preservation actions.
“It is an innovative plan to bring funding to developing countries home to tropical forests. It will be a results-based mechanism, meaning that countries that demonstrate they have conserved their forests will be remunerated up to USD four per hectare,” Patrick Luna, head of the ministry’s biodiversity division, said.
Conceived by Brazil with the endorsement of Colombia, Norway, the UK, France, and the United Arab Emirates, the fund has also been supported by nations with vast expanses of tropical forests.
At an event in May this year, the Democratic Republic of Congo expressed the support of the countries of the Congo basin in Africa for the new financing mechanism. A similar event is likely to take place in countries covered by the Mekong basin and the island of Borneo in Asia. The two basins and the Amazon basin boast the most biodiverse forest areas on the planet.
Green investment
“Contributions to the fund will not be donations, but investments. Companies as well as countries that contribute to the fund will be remunerated annually at a competitive market rate, as if they had purchased triple-A debt securities,” said Patrick Luna. Triple-A funds have a low risk of default.
Under the rules, a portion of the profit goes back to the investor, as with a regular investment, and the surplus will be directed to countries that protect their tropical forests in proportion to the area preserved.
The model is said to allow investors to get their money back with returns in line with normal market rates while contributing to forest preservation and reducing carbon emissions.
The Tropical Forests Forever Fund will also require the direct transfer of 20 percent of its total resources to indigenous and traditional communities that live in and preserve these biomes, reinforcing the community’s role in preservation.
All efforts will be coordinated by a committee to be created with representatives from the countries that are part of the working group that is developing the proposal.
