By Lucas Guaraldo*
Protecting forests is fundamental to ensuring the productivity of Brazilian agribusiness, said André Guimarães, executive director of IPAM (Amazon Environmental Research Institute), during the “GLF FORESTS 2025: Defining the next decade of action“, organized by the Global Landscape Forum in Bonn, Germany. The meeting discussed issues related to valuing forests and integrating productive areas with native vegetation, with a focus on creating landscapes that are resilient to climate change.
“First of all, there’s no way of reaching the 1.5°C target without tropical forests. Without the Amazon, there is no Paris Agreement. Furthermore, without these forests, we won’t have global food security. This is because between 40% and 50% of the world’s food production comes from tropical countries, where, in most cases, agriculture is not irrigated and depends on the rainfall generated by the forests. Everything is interconnected,” said Guimarães.
According to studies carried out by IPAM in central Brazil, the rise in temperature is directly related to the fall in agricultural productivity. According to the researchers, for every degree increase in temperature, soybean production can fall by 6%, while corn production can fall by 8%. In addition, changes in climate are associated with the occurrence of extreme events and the disruption of rainfall regimes, which results in losses for agricultural production.
“We have regions in the Cerrado and the Amazon where an increase of up to 4°C in the average temperature has been recorded. This means that growing soy and corn in these areas is no longer viable or profitable. We therefore need to change the paradigm and see forests as part of the production system. The more forest we have, the more production, the more water and the more natural pest control we will have,” he warned.
The Global Landscape Forum is a multi-sectoral organization that supports the development of productive landscapes that are resilient to climate change. It also works to create financing mechanisms for forest protection and energy transition strategies. The forum is currently made up of more than 10,000 organizations in 185 countries. The event was recorded and is available on the GLF YouTube channel.
Keeping deforestation under control
With the recent reduction in national deforestation rates, Guimarães defends the creation of mechanisms to prevent the loss of native vegetation from increasing again, as well as the need to adapt policies to combat deforestation.
“If we pooled all the money in global philanthropy, we would still only have a fraction of the resources needed to guarantee the planet’s environmental security. But it’s better to invest now than deal with an uncertain future. Fighting deforestation has two fronts: we need to reduce it, through command and control policies and law enforcement. However, to keep it at low levels, other tools are needed. We need to replace unsustainable practices with more sustainable land use models, and this requires investment,” he said.
In this context, initiatives such as the CONSERVprogram , which pays rural producers for conserving areas of vegetation that could be legally deforested, can serve as a model for the future of forest conservation. Since 2020, the program has signed 21 contracts with producers in Mato Grosso and Pará, preventing the emission of more than 2 million tons of CO₂ and protecting more than 20,000 hectares of vegetation.
Similarly, the GALO (Global Assessment from Local Observations) project can also be fundamental to understanding the relationship between productive and natural areas in the countryside. The initiative, conducted at the Tanguro Research Station, investigates how the dynamics of the Amazon and Cerrado biomes are influenced by factors such as climate and agricultural productivity.