The executive director of IPAM (Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia), André Guimarães, called for tropical forests, located in the southern hemisphere of the planet, to be taken into account in the debates at COP30 (30th edition of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), to be held in November in Belém. As this year’s civil society representative at the convention, Guimarães took part on Thursday (31) in the Global Conference on Climate and Health, which brought together representatives from the Ministry of Health, social movements and governments from other countries in Brasilia.
Attending the “Participatory processes at COP30” session at the conference, the agronomist warned that forests need to be considered in the “equation” of climate debates, since without them, the country’s food security and that of the rest of the planet would be at risk. “We have to understand that 50% of the world’s food is produced in the planet’s tropical belt. I’m talking about Brazil, Indonesia, Congo, Thailand. We manage to do this because we have forests,” said Guimarães.
According to him, forests are a “fundamental” part of agriculture, because they provide and distribute rainwater and, consequently, for the health of the world’s population because of the food supply. Guimarães gave as his main example the Amazon, which is responsible for irrigating Brazilian agriculture, since more than 90% of agribusiness in the country does not have its own irrigation system. As has been argued and demonstrated in studies carried out by IPAM, Brazil’s leadership in soybean production depends on rainfall patterns generated by forests.
“If we mess up the Amazon system, we’ll be putting Brazil’s GDP [Gross Domestic Product] and the food security of the country and the planet at risk. There is no way to ensure the food security of planet Earth and achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement without the integrity of the Amazon,” he said.
Guimarães also cited a report by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) which says that Brazil will be responsible for almost half of the growth in food supply by 2050. According to him, this is an “enormous responsibility” for the country and, for this reason, it is necessary to pay special attention to Brazil’s forests.
“If we don’t take care of the forests, we will have a loss of biodiversity and changes in rainfall patterns, but we will also have a hunger problem. Brazil feeds a billion people every day and provides 10% of the world’s food. If Brazil didn’t exist today, soy would be 30% more expensive,” he explained.
Alongside names such as Alice Amorim Vogas, program director for COP30, and Ethel Maciel, special envoy for health at the convention, Guimarães also warned of the risk of oil exploration in the Amazon – from a global health perspective – and called for the issue of fossil fuels to be debated in Belém.
According to Guimarães, the Brazilian Ministry of Health should take part in discussions about drilling wells in the region, because oil would release more carbon into the atmosphere, warming the planet and causing the Amazon rainforest to dry out and become susceptible to fire. For this reason, in Guimarães’ opinion, oil exploration could negatively influence the Amazon’s role in providing water, which would affect national agriculture. “This equation of looking at the forest is fundamental to the climate agenda. We have to look at it as a provider of food, shelter and water services and also as a safeguard for our health on the planet,” he said.
At the end of his speech, the executive director celebrated the advances made by civil society at previous editions of the COP, such as REDD+, a strategy proposed to promote incentives for developing countries to take action to mitigate climate change. The sector has already been mentioned in a letter from the convention’s president, ambassador André Corrêa do Lago, because of its importance in the discussions.
As civil society’s special envoy in Belém, Guimarães said that civil society will take the issue of fossil fuels and its implications to the negotiating tables, as well as the debate involving food security, tropical forests and the health of the planet.