(The Guardian) Scoop: Three big rainforest nations form alliance
The big three tropical rainforest nations – Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – have signed a strategic alliance to coordinate at their conservation at G20, the Guardian can reveal.
The agreement, signed by the administration of outgoing president Jair Bolsonaro, who has overseen enormous deforestation of the Amazon, says the three countries will coordinate on UN climate and biodiversity talks related to tropical forests, with a focus on finance, sustainable management and restoration.
Brazil, Indonesia and DRC are home to 52% of the world’s remaining primary tropical forests, which are crucial to avoiding climate catastrophe. The new alliance says that a results-based payments mechanism to reduce deforestation and keep them standing is a priority through UN climate talks.
The incoming president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said he would seek to forge a similar alliance in his campaign, with parallel discussions between his team and counterparts in Indonesia and the DRC understood to be happening.
Lula will attend Cop27 on Wednesday where he is expected to discuss efforts to save the Amazon and other forests around the world.
