Experts on the Amazon have urged action from politicians at the COP16 conference to combat the policies fuelling demand for products from activities like gold mining that are driving biodiversity loss.

The convergence of criminal economies with misguided public policies has created a system that is destroying the Amazon and its communities, experts said during a webinar this week hosted by Ohio State University.

The comments came as world leaders prepare for the UN-convened COP16 biodiversity conference in Colombia in October.

“Perverted public policies are incentivising deforestation of forests and degradation of public and Indigenous lands throughout the region,” said Rodrigo Botero, director of the Foundation for Conservation and Sustainable Development in Bogota.

In Europe and the US, there is “growing demand” for mining products like gold that are directly associated with arms groups. “And there is no traceability,” said Botero.

A cross-border crime network is affecting ecosystems and forest communities through illegal mining, logging, cattle ranging, and land grabbing, panellists said.

The narcotics trade has growing connections with these illegal activities through money laundering, financing, territorial control, and violence, they said.

This shift has led to rising conflict in the region. Since 2020, Putumayo, Colombia – on the border of Peru and Ecuador – has had 21 massacres, said Melina Risso, programme director at the Igarape Institute in Rio de Janeiro.

Botero called for rethinking the demand mechanisms for Amazon products, to help meet international biodiversity goals.

“There are neighbouring countries where borders are completely controlled by illegal economies: Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. COP16 is an opportunity to define specific joint actions on the Amazon basin.”

Concerted action is needed on policies affecting infrastructure, livestock, mining, energy, and Indigenous Peoples, he said.

RECOGNITION

Indeed, illegal markets combined with the geography of the Amazon, give crime a cross-border reach, particularly around Brazil, said Risso.

International forums should recognise the devastating impacts of illegal activity on biodiversity and local communities, she said.

This could be done in several ways, she suggested:

• Adding environmental crimes to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime
• Strengthening regional cooperation through the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization
• Offering economic and social alternatives to promoting long-term conservation, while enforcing land protection laws

“We also need to … push forward a green economy that protects both the forest and the people who live there,” said Risso.

“Finally, we should explore innovative strategies for compensating ecosystem services like the Tropical Forests Forever Fund, biodiversity credits, and Amazon bonds.” In July, three Brazilian organisations unveiled a concept note on a mechanism to help protect tropical forests.

Biodiversity credits have a long way to go in understanding how they affect local communities in the Amazon region, Risso said in response to a question from Carbon Pulse.

Implementing a ‘bioeconomy’ approach on biodiversity credit project areas in the Amazon could help developers stay afloat at a time when demand for units has yet to pick up, the founder of a Brazil-based company said in an article published this week.

By Thomas Cox – t.cox@carbon-pulse.com

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