Some $2.5 billion per year is needed to revitalise deforested lands in the Amazon basin, the Colombian president has said, as his government prepares to host UN biodiversity talks later this year.
Speaking at the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Gustavo Petro argued that current investments in the protection and restoration of the Amazon basin are insufficient.
“We have tried to make estimates, and we know that we need a flow of $2.5 bln a year in order to revitalise deforested spaces”, he said.
The Colombian president reiterated the proposal of a debt-for-nature swap to mobilise resources and protect the rainforest.
“This is a powerful funding mechanism of climate action. On a universal scale, debt swap would represent a complete change. Many efforts are being made by Indigenous peoples and local communities to protect the forest, but we must act upon the global financial system,” Petro said.
Colombia will host this year’s biodiversity COP16 from October 21. It will be the first UN Convention on Biological Diversity since the Global Biodiversity Framework was agreed in Montreal in 2022.
At COP28 UN climate negotiations in Dubai, Brazil and Colombia committed to reaching zero-deforestation by 2030. Colombia reduced deforestation by 70% in the first nine months of 2023, compared with the previous year, the government estimated.
Petro’s estimate is low compared with that of Carlos Nobre, a University of Sao Paulo scientist, who estimated last month that restoring the 700,000 square kilometres required to avert the Amazon dying out would cost at least $20 bln, according to Reuters news agency.
The Amazon basin is one of the most biodiverse regions in the world, accounting for almost 10% of global biodiversity.
The region also plays a crucial role in absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere. The World Resources Institute estimated that indigenous forests in Amazon countries contributed to removing as much as 460 million tonnes of CO2 annually between 2001 and 2021.
National Protected Areas (NPAs) and Indigenous Territories (ITs) cover more than 47% of the Amazon region. However, according to the Coordinating body of Indigenous Organisations of the Amazon Basin (COICA), only 1 mln of the 2.4 mln square kilometres of indigenous territories in the Amazon are officially recognised.
In 2021, the organisation launched the Amazonia for Life initiative, calling for protecting 80% of the Amazon by 2025 and recognising “the key role played by indigenous populations and local and traditional communities in conserving the biodiversity and natural resources in the region”.
“The fund already has gathered $10 million”, the general coordinator of COICA Fany Kuiru said at Davos.
Colombia’s Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Susana Muhamad, has publicly backed the Amazonia for Life goal, which has already supported by more than 1,200 organisations and global leaders.
Last August, the leaders of eight Amazon basin countries met in Belem, Brazil, to discuss the initiatives to protect the region but failed to include specific targets for ending oil extraction and deforestation in the final declaration.
By Sergio Colombo – sergio@carbon-pulse.com
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