The United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP (Conference of the Parties) began on 30 November in the United Arab Emirates, and will run until 12 December, with the aim of approving new policies to limit the rise in global temperatures.

Prior to this meeting, the Brazilian minister of the environment and climate change, the evangelical Marina Silva, explained that the Brazilian government, led by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is going to propose the creation of an international fund to preserve the forests in around 80 countries.

“God willing, we will approve this tool to ensure that forests are paid for and protected. We are the most interested in protecting the forest, biodiversity, indigenous people and our rainfall regime”, she said, making it clear that the details will be announced by the Brazilian president during his speech at COP28.

At a seminar on evaluating and improving public spending, Silva had said that the proposal “is a payment mechanism per standing forest, per hectare”, to help protect these tropical territories.

According to Brazilian government sources, the minister believes that her country has a good chance of seeing the forest protection fee proposal approved.

“The destruction of the forest will be the destruction of our rainfall regime”, stressed Silva, recalling that the executive has made an effort to reverse this by recording a 22% drop in deforestation in the Amazon in one year.

“This avoided releasing 133 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere”, she added.

Alarming data

Christian-based organisation World Vision, explained that the worst drought to hit the Amazon region in the last 127 years, according to meteorological records, affects over 800,000 people in the Brazilian and Peruvian Amazon alone, while multiplying the incidence of forest fires and the massive death of fish, harming the most vulnerable families.

“The world got used to the massive destruction of the forest, to the perverse statistic that every minute an area of the Amazon equivalent to one or two football fields was lost. The damage has been immense and we are now facing a situation that is difficult to reverse”, warned Luis Corzo, director of World Vision's Amazon basin initiative.

In Brazil alone, over 633,000 people are suffering the devastating effects of this situation, which has reduced the levels of the Amazon river and its affluents to unprecedented lows.

World Vision representatives have confirmed that the unusual rise in temperatures is causing a severe food crisis that will potentially spread to the Amazon in Peru, Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador.

That is why they are asking for support from private companies, cooperation agencies and authorities to contribute to the mitigation and progressive adaptation of crops and livelihoods to climate change.

Through their Amazon basin initiative, they aim to reach 10 million people and restore 25 million hectares to help prevent and reduce the effects of climate change.