By Lucas Guaraldo*
Protecting and adapting Amazonian peoples and communities vulnerable to climate change, although costly, is the most economical way to avoid environmental collapse and protect Brazil from even greater losses due to the climate crisis, warns a policy brief drawn up by researchers from IPAM (Amazon Environmental Research Institute).
According to the document, investing now in adaptation and the protection of ecosystems, with a focus on indigenous peoples and traditional forest communities, represents a lower cost than the projected socio-economic damage, reinforcing the urgency of coordinated actions to avoid ecological and social collapse in the region.
The researchers stress that the actions require investment to guarantee socio-economic resilience in the face of the climate crisis. In the Amazon, economic losses over the 30 years following the tipping point – when the forest will be unable to sustain itself and will collapse – could reach 3.5 trillion dollars.
The document mentions that only nine Brazilian municipalities have laws on adaptation to climate change. However, many of these plans are limited in scope and face challenges related to the lack of political interest and the low technical capacity of local governments on the subject. Conflicts of interest and economic pressures, as well as predatory socio-economic development agendas, have also delayed the implementation and expansion of climate policies, the text points out.
“With each year of delay, adaptation costs increase, and opportunities to minimize climate impacts are reduced. It is therefore imperative that decision-makers prioritize and accelerate the implementation of adaptation strategies, using data and projections as a basis for immediate action. Only through an agile and coordinated response will it be possible to avoid the projected worst-case scenarios and guarantee a sustainable future for the country,” warns Patrícia Pinho, Deputy Director of Research at IPAM and one of the authors of the policy brief.
Adaptation strategies
To deal with an increasingly challenging climate scenario, the policy brief reinforces the need to identify the most exposed groups, such as indigenous peoples and traditional communities, guaranteeing specific measures for these groups and that they are prioritized in adaptation plans.
Extreme weather events such as prolonged droughts, floods and forest fires have become more frequent, resulting in impacts on the population, the economy and infrastructure. The policy brief highlights that between 1991 and 2023 climate disasters caused around R$10 billion in damage in the Legal Amazon – an average of R$331 million per year – and directly affected more than 13 million people.
As specific measures, the document suggests strengthening basic infrastructure and health and education services in Amazonian cities – especially in smaller municipalities with less than 50,000 inhabitants – recognizing that the seasons in the region are strongly marked by hydrological cycles. The bioeconomy should also be treated as a central adaptation strategy, through the creation of business systems based on the circular economy and the optimization of environmental resources.
“Historically, from colonization to the major projects of the dictatorship and the current development model imposed on the region, there has been a tendency to erase the Amazon’s social fabric. There is a lot of talk about the forest, biodiversity, climate and ecosystem services – and yes, all of this is fundamental – but we must remember that the Amazon is also home to millions of people. Indigenous peoples, traditional communities, river dwellers and small farmers have lived there for centuries, sustaining their cultures, ways of life and caring for the forest. They are on the front line of the impacts of the climate crisis, despite having contributed little to this global destabilization. That’s why climate justice needs to be at the heart of the solutions. Without tackling historical and current inequalities, there will be no adaptation possible and no just transition that can be sustained,” argues Pinho.
The document also advocates the operationalization of the IMF’s Resilience and Sustainability Fund, with the aim of providing funding for climate adaptation through Multilateral Development Banks and the private sector. The creation of global mechanisms, such as the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) damage loss fund, should be able to direct adaptation subsidies to countries facing extreme weather events.
Ensuring equity
The document reinforces the need for equity in the distribution of resources earmarked for climate adaptation. The strategy seeks to ensure that the most vulnerable groups have equal and priority access to the benefits of adaptation, since they are disproportionately affected by the effects of the climate crisis.
Promoting equity in adaptation involves creating consultation and participation mechanisms that ensure local communities have an active voice in decisions and proposals that impact their lives and territories. According to the researchers, this balance can be achieved through the creation of accessible funds that support adaptation in especially vulnerable communities.
“The Amazon, as this great reservoir of biodiversity, climate regulation and water power, needs to be seen from the point of view of those who have been in this forest for thousands of years. In order to guarantee effective, sustainable strategies with real local adherence, it is essential to prioritize the culture, traditional knowledge and experience of the populations that live in and have historically managed the Amazon’s tropical ecosystems,” adds Pinho.
Currently, regions in East Asia and the Pacific are among those in need of financial support for climate adaptation actions; as well as South Asia, where populations are exposed to recurrent extreme weather events. The areas most in need of large financial contributions are in Latin America and the Caribbean, especially the Amazon region.