Stories in Brazil

COP15: Your guide to the 2022 UN Biodiversity Conference

Coral terrestre // Foto macro de suculenta
TNC BRASIL NA COP 15 Coral terrestre // Foto macro de suculenta © Raiane Campos

This December, the race to protect the planet's biodiversity will be front and center when representatives from countries around the world gather in Montreal, Canada, for the United Nation's Biodiversity Conference, referred to as COP15.

You may have heard of COP27, the UN Climate Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in November. Despite sharing the name COP (Conference of Parties), the two events are designed to focus on different areas of policy and specific points of negotiation. Here's a little background on the biodiversity conference and what's at stake for you and the planet.

COP15: 2022's most important environmental summit

A TNC expert explains why

1. What is COP15?

COP15 stands for the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties for biodiversity. It runs for two weeks, starting December 7 in Montreal, Canada. COP15—along with previous meetings—is centered around the Convention on Biological Diversity, a 1992 international agreement on how nations should use and protect the world's natural resources. The agreement has been ratified or accepted by 196 countries. The United States is not part of that list, though US government representatives will participate in Montreal.

TNC Brasil spokespersons at COP15

Frineia Rezende - Executive Director TNC Brazil

Helcio Souza - Indigenous Peoples and Traditional Communities Strategy Manager

Karen Oliveira - Brazil external affairs Director

2. Why is COP15 important?

Since 2015, governments have had the legally binding Paris Agreement—like a collective guiding star on climate—but now is the time to update decadal globally agreed targets for nature. So at the Montreal conference, the focus will be on agreeing on a new, 10-year Global Biodiversity Framework: humanity’s roadmap towards a more nature-positive future.

The climate and biodiversity crises are fundamentally interconnected. Momentum from COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh will also have implications for the outcomes in Montreal.

And the race to save the planet’s biodiversity is every bit as urgent as the climate crisis. One quarter of plant and animal species are threatened with extinction and over half of global GDP is dependent on nature.

The science is clear: As global biodiversity continues to decline at an alarming rate, we must protect 30% of terrestrial, inland water and marine areas by 2030. To ensure long-lasting protection, these conserved areas must be effectively managed and inclusively governed.

3. What are the topics at COP15?

Stakes are huge, time is short, and negotiations will be tricky. Among the many issues to be negotiated at COP15 will be proposals that address infrastructure, agriculture, invasive species, pesticides, the role of business and government subsidies that harm the environment.

Negotiators will also aim to reach agreements on financing biodiversity (including how the costs are shared among wealthy and developing countries), honoring Indigenous leadership, and valuing nature's contribution to humanity.

Looming behind the proposals at COP15 is the connection between protecting biodiversity and tackling climate change. Forests, mangroves, coral reefs, peatlands and other ecosystems that harbor a wealth of life also store vast amounts of carbon, so protecting and restoring these ecosystems is essential for tempering the planet’s climate.

TNC Brazil agenda at COP15

schedule

  • December 8

    13:00-14:00

    Nature Positive Pavilion

     

    Estratégias inovadoras que gerem financiamento para a natureza enquanto apoiam meios de subsistência sustentáveis para as pessoas são necessárias para fechar a lacuna de financiamento para o novo Quadro Global da Biodiversidade Pós-2020. Neste evento a TNC e parceiros destacarão a bioeconomia da sociobiodiversidade, iniciativa que valoriza a natureza e a floresta, com o uso sustentável das riquezas da terra. Os palestrantes compartilharão a experiência do Estado do Pará, localizado na Amazônia brasileira,no desenvolvimento de um novo modelo de bioeconomia, com inclusão de povos indígenas e comunidades tradicionais. A TNC apresentará um estudo, desenvolvido em parceria com o Banco Interamericano de Desenvolvimento (BID) e a Empresa Natura, que evidencia opotencial econômico dos produtos da sociobiodiversidade amazônica. A pesquisa mostra quecadeias produtivas da bioeconomia, como açaí, cacau-amêndoa, castanha, copaíba, cumaru, andiroba, mel, buriti, cupuaçu e palmito, só no Estado do Pará, podem gerar renda em torno de U$ 34 bilhões até 2040. A contribuição econômica das cadeias de valor da sociobiodiversidade para o PIB do Estado do Pará, em 2019, contribuiu com US$ 1,4 bilhão e gerou mais de 224 mil empregos. Essa contribuição pode ser 30 vezes maior seforem implementadas políticas públicas adequadas, como pagamentos por serviços ambientais.

    Com base nisso, o estado lançou o Plano de Bioeconomia do Pará (PlanBio), uma política pública para fortalecer a sociobioeconomia e o plano estadual de economia debaixo carbono. Esta metodologia de estudo pode ser aplicada em outros países amazônicos e em outros países com florestas em pé que queiram liberar o potencial sociobioeconômico.Participantes: TNC, BNDES, IPLC from Pará representative, IADB, Pará Government representative, CEBDS (WBCSD) Formato do evento: Painel de discussãoentre os palestrantes abordando suas perspectivas sobre o potencial e forma de impulsionar e dar escala a este tipo de produção.

     

  • Data: 13 de dezembro, terça-feiraHora: 18h às 19h

    Local: Nature Positive Pavilion (main room)

    Descrição do evento: Este evento destacará o importante papel das mulheres indígenas na preservação e transmissão do conhecimento tradicional. Apresentando iniciativas lideradas por mulheres, apoiadas por TNC e outrosparceiros, que promovema igualdade de gênero em sua comunidade, que mostram a importância de colocar o conhecimento tradicional e as soluções baseadas na natureza no centro do desenvolvimento local. Em um momento em que enfrentamos crises planetárias sem precedentes, é fundamental acelerar ações que protejam e restaurem os ecossistemas do mundo e as mulheres indígenas estão na linha de frente desse trabalho. Com este evento a The Nature Conservancy (TNC) mostra seu compromisso em implementar e apoiar políticas e práticas de equidade de gênero dentro e fora de nossa organização, por meio donosso trabalho emconservação. Neste encontro serão destacadostrês projetos apoiados pela TNC que ganharam o 13º Prêmio do Equador em 2022, doPNUD, junto com outros 7 vencedores, selecionados de um conjunto de mais de 500 indicações de 109 países.

  • December 9

    9h - 17h

    InterContinental Hotel

    Live streaming TBC

    Speakers:

    TNC Brazil and representatives from global team

    CEBDS, WWF

    Apoio: Arapyaú, WRI

  • Data:10 de dezembro, sábado

    Hora:9h30 às 12h (de 9h30 às 10h haverá um café de boas-vindas)

    Local:Hotel Monville –localizado a 2 minutos a pé do local da COP 15

    Junte-se a nós, no Hotel Monville, em Montreal, neste evento paralelo durante a COP15, queirá debater, em uma sessão interativa, os caminhos e ações necessárias para a construção de uma política nacional de bioeconomia, especialmente aquela que representa a economia dos produtos da biodiversidade manejados de forma sustentável pelas comunidades indígenas e locais.

    Participantes: studies TNC, WRI, CPI + BNDES, BID, Banco Mundial, Coalizão, Concertação

  • Celebrando as mulheres na biodiversidade - Women for Biodiversity Data: 11 de dezembro, sábado

    Hora: 19h às 22h

    Local: TBC

    Como parte das iniciativas da TNC Brasil na COP 15, iremos promover um jantar em homenagem às mulheres à frente da agenda de biodiversidade no Brasil.

  • Legado e Futuro: Construindo os próximos 10 anos do PNGATI -Lições da PNGATI e as oportunidades de financiamentos para acelerar sua implementação.

    Data:15 de dezembro, quinta-feira

    Hora:9h30 às 12h (de 9h30 às 10h haverá um café de boas-vindas)

    Local:Hotel Monville –1041 Rue de Bleury, Montréal, QC H2Z 1M7, Canadá (localizado a 2 minutos a pé do local da COP 15)

    Descrição do evento: Este painel será uma sessão interativa, liderada pela Rede APIB (Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil ) e TNC, em que os palestrantes vão apresentar o legado dos 10 anos de existência da PNGATI e discutir recomendações de ações para retomada da governança e dos investimentos nacionais e internacionais para implementação da Política de Gestão Territorial e Ambiental em Terras Indígenas (PNGATI).Participantes: APIB, COIAB, GT do governo de transição no Brasil, TNCe outras ongs parceiras , Bndes e Fundo Amazonia, GEF, PNUD, Fundação Moore, FFord , CLUA e outras fundações privadas, agencias bilaterais ( Usaid, Norad, GIZ/KfW )

  • December 15

    18h - 19h

    Danube (510A)

     


    Post 2020 Framework

    Business

    Indigenous peoples and local communities

    Biodiversity for Development

    Sustainable Use of Biodiversity

    Speakers:

    CEBDS | CNI | WWF | TNC | LIFE Institute

Projects and initiatives

  • Launched at COP 26 in Glasgow in November 2021, the Innovative Finance for the Amazon, Cerrado and Chaco (IFACC) announced an initial commitment of $3 billion to lending and investment mechanisms for deforestation-and-conversion-free (DCF) soy and cattle production in South America, to be disbursed by 2025. One year after launch, IFACC commitments have gone up to $4.2 billion and signatories now comprise 13 financial institutions and agribusiness companies - &Green Fund, AGRI3, DuAgro, Grupo Gaia, JGP Asset Management, Syngenta, Sustainable Investment Management, VERT, Mauá Capital, 3J Capital, OPEA, Agrogalaxy, and AgDev. IFACC is also working with additional financial institutions and companies who have not formally joined the initiative to increase capital flows towards DCF agriculture.

    Over the past 10 months, several IFACC-aligned products have been launched, and we expect disbursements to exceed $100 million by the end of the year. The initiative also released its “Finance for a Forest Positive Future” report, Impact Monitoring Guide and has supported over 20 financial institutions in Brazil with training on the development of innovative financial solutions. 

  • TNC has defined four priority landscapes around the world as the focus of its work, and the Amazon is one of them, in addition to Kenya, Borneo, and the Appalachians (USA). Among the factors that led TNC to make those choices are the potential those regions have to provide globally significant contributions to our conservation outcomes, their high relevance to biodiversity and carbon, and their potential to inspire new levels of engagement and support.
     
    In the Brazilian Amazon, Pará state is the main region where TNC works. Pará is home to nine percent of the world's forests and, at the same time, is the leading Brazilian state in deforestation and carbon emissions.
     
    TNC works collaboratively and through a systemic approach with Indigenous Peoples, Quilombolas, those in extractivist activities, traditional communities, rural producers, governments, the private sector, and civil society to tackle current challenges that demand integrated and sustainable solutions.

  • Announced at COP25 in 2019, the Amazon Now State Plan (PEAA in Portuguese) was launched by the government of Pará at an event promoted by TNC. The PEAA is part of a strategy to strengthen subnational management of the Brazilian Amazon and enable the implementation of public policies aimed at a low-carbon economy.
     
    The Plan comprises two crucial pillars: financing—via the Eastern Amazon Fund —and territorial governance—through the Policy for Integrated Action in Sustainable Territories. Learn more about in this article.

  • Around 40 percent of deforestation in the Amazon happens in small rural properties, primarily due to extensive and low-technology livestock activities.

     
    But the Forest Cocoa Project has been proving that deforestation is not the only path those producers can take. Cocoa agroforests can generate more income, recover degraded areas, and ensure long-term land sustainability. Learn more about the project that involves more than 300 rural family producers in the Pará municipalities of São Félix do Xingu and Tucumã.

  • TNC, in partnership with Amazon, Inc. and World Agroforestry (ICRAF), launched the Agroforestry and Restoration Accelerator initiative in 2021. The project seeks to generate quality carbon credits, attract investments, and innovate by creating a business model that is scalable and replicable in other regions and can boost agroforestry systems and ecological restoration.

     
    The initiative is committed to engaging up to 3,000 families and will help family farmers who currently have degraded or unproductive areas migrate to agroforestry system arrangements. Those will be based on crops of cocoa and other native Amazon species, such as açaí, which has high market demand and attractive profitability.
     
    Recovering those areas should involve 18,000 hectares and remove 9.6 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere in 30 years, in three territories: Southeastern Pará, the Trans Amazon Highway region, and northeastern Pará. Learn more here.

  • In collaboration with the Federal University of Western Pará (UFOPA) and the Lower Amazon Fishers' Movement (MOPEBAM), the Tapajós Waters project works in partnership with traditional communities for the conservation of the Tapajós River basin in western Pará. The project aims to contribute to local development, increasing knowledge about the sustainable use of aquatic resources and conserving freshwater biodiversity in the region. Additionally, it supports the organizing of riverine communities, their governance, community management, and territorial planning to expand their participation and voice along with those of other stakeholders in the region.

    The main partners and beneficiaries of this project are the riverine communities that practice traditional fishing and depend on the basin's resources for their survival and productive activity. Learn more here.

  • In the Atlantic Forest's Mantiqueira region, TNC promotes and develops the Payment for Environmental Services (PES) model as one of the tools to achieve its restoration and conservation objectives.
     
    One hundred thousand hectares have been restored in the Atlantic Forest, 7,000 of them by TNC. As of 2021, those restored areas removed more than nine million megatons of CO2 from the atmosphere. Learn more.

  • Through the Restaura Brasil campaign, TNC mobilizes people and companies in a collective movement that supports native-vegetation restoration to restore one billion trees in 400,000 hectares in the country by 2030.
     
    Donate trees and help Brazil achieve its restoration goal at the pace and scale needed by the country and world. Learn more.

  • In partnership with the IDB and Natura, TNC recently launched the study "The Bioeconomy of Socio-biodiversity in the State of Pará," which illustrates the size of that market. In 2019 alone, socio-biodiversity in Pará generated a GDP of US $957 million. If the public policies recommended by the study are adopted, the GDP could reach US $30 billion in 2040.

     
    Those data were not considered in official statistics, which don't measure the value of this market in all the links of the chain. More than 70% of Pará's forests are under the management of traditional communities (Indigenous Lands, extractive reserves, Quilombola territories, and conservation units). TNC supports communities so that their economic projects for the sustainable use of natural resources in their territories can be valued and strengthened. Check out the Executive Summary and the complete Study here.

  • A ONU deu início à Década da Restauração de Ecossistemas e o Brasil tem um enorme potencial para liderar essa agenda no mundo. Pensando nisso, algumas das mais importantes organizações ambientais da sociedade civil que atuam no país decidiram unir esforçospara uma meta comum de 10 anos: restaurar 4 milhões de hectares de florestas na Amazônia, Cerrado e Mata Atlântica. Os escritórios no Brasil da CI, TNC, WRI e WWF estão juntos na União pela Restauração, que terá seu primeiro debate público na COP26, aberto a todos que tenham interesse em se engajar nesta agenda. Saiba mais aqui. A TNC participa e colabora com diversos outros coletivos que têm objetivos convergentes. Entre eles, alguns que lançaram conteúdo específicos para a COP26 como a Coalizão Brasil Clima, Florestas e Agricultura; a Concertação pela Amazônia;e a iniciativa Clima e Desenvolvimento.

    The UN started the Decade of Ecosystem Restoration, and Brazil has enormous potential to be a world leader in this agenda. With this in mind, some of the most important environmental organizations of Brazilian civil society decided to join forces toward a common 10-year goal: Restoring 4 million hectares of forests in the Amazon, Cerrado, and Atlantic Forest. The offices of CI, TNC, WRI, and WWF in Brazil are working together in the Union for Restoration. The group will have its first public debate at COP26, which is open to all interested in engaging in this agenda. Learn more here.
     
    TNC participates in and collaborates with other diverse collectives with converging goals. Some have launched COP26-specific content, such as the Brazilian Coalition on Climate, Forests and Agriculture, Amazon Concertation, and the  Climate and Development Initiative.

  • Seeking to give voice and breadth to their own agendas, the network of indigenous communicators in the Amazon began to take shape in 2016 and currently has communicators, journalists, cameraoperators and photographers who work so that information reaches the bases of each community.

    Organizations such as the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB), the Federation of Indigenous People of Pará (FEPIPA), the Federation of Indigenous People and Organizations of Mato Grosso (FEPOIMT), the Articulation of Indigenous People and Organizations of Amapá and NorthernPará (APOIANP) and Mídia India, with the support of partners such as The Nature Conservancy Brasil (TNC), which has contributed to training in creatingdigital content and in using communication tools and platforms. Find out more about how communication has become an important instrument of struggle for the indigenous people of the Amazon.

  • Since 2015, TNC has worked in partnerships with large companies, the public sector, and civil society advancing actions for conserving and restoring springs and watersheds, joining forces to create an environment of sustainable economic development for protecting water sources. The Green-Blue Water Coalition is an initiative that, among other strategies, uses nature-based solutions to strengthen water management, engaging the public sector and businesses in watershed conservation, restoration, and governance. The objective is to expand the scale and impact ofwatershed recovery in the Cerrado, Atlantic Forest and Amazon biomes. The results were restoration and conservation of 124 thousand hectares and leveraging more than R$ 240 million.

    In addition The Green-Blue Water Coalition, municipal watershed conservation programs are key parts of The Nature Conservancy (TNC). We help in creating local policies where we have a direct role -from implementing, leveraging financial resources, governance structure, to preparing legal frameworks for creating laws that formalize program creation.

  • Climate solutions need to be more inclusive, collaborative and innovative. As part of a comprehensive climate strategy, TNC is uniting women of all backgrounds with innovation labs, networks and workshops.

    After all, women are fighting for the environment in all sectors –as scientists, lawmakers, indigenous and community leaders, CEOs, etc. –spearheading majorvictories for our planet. Women offer powerful skills and perspectives that can change the dynamics of the climate conversation and open up new opportunities for collaboration.

    We believe that fostering women's leadership on climate change issues will provide a platform for innovation, collaborative dialogue,and necessary action. Empowering women is critical to protecting and managing the landscapes where TNC operates.

  • The Reverte Program was launched in 2019 by Syngenta, The Nature Conservancy and local partners to foster the restoration of degraded pastureland in the Brazilian Cerrado, a region of immeasurable natural value due to its stores of carbon, fresh water and biodiversity, accommodating the projected expansion of soy and other crops sustainably and profitably, avoiding new conversion of native vegetation.

    The program aims to support rural producers in recovering farmland through an integrated solution that involves good agricultural practices, input-use protocols and a financial solution based in a long-term finance credit program.
    The Program was the collective effort of representing institutions such as banks, trading companies, rural producers, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), and the academy. The Reverte Program was created to support rural producers in recovering degraded areas through an integrated solution that involves good agricultural practices, financial tools, and input-use protocols that make fertilizers and seeds to machinery and pesticides appropriate for growing soy and other intercropped harvests. Through partnerships that share the same objectives, the Program also seeks to strengthen pre-existing projects that can contribute to the evolution and scale of regenerative agriculture in the Cerrado.

    The development of financial incentives and new technologies is fundamental to support the expansion of agriculture production without conversion of native vegetation. Through partnerships, TNC seeks to develop strategies and systemic solutions that make it possible to increase production with environmental conservation.

  • The Mato Grosso REM (Reed Early Movers) Program - launched at Rio+20 in 2012 - consists of rewarding results obtained in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation.

    The State of Mato Grosso has benefited from the Program since 2017 for having promoted a significant reduction in deforestation over 10 years (2004-2014). The REM MT Program contract provides resources in the order of 44 million Euros from the German government through the German Development Bank (KfW) and the UK government through the British Department for Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

    The program aims to reduce the deforestation rate in the state of Mato Grosso, through forest conservation and climate protection, and has established as a target an Emissions Reduction (ER) of 11 million tCO2e in accordance with the determinations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Our Team at COP27

    • Mariana Pitta


      Communication Manager TNC Brazil


      Whatsapp +55(11) 96133-2324- Email: mariana.pitta@tnc.org

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Vista aérea de área de restauração em agroflorestas de cacau na Amazônia.
AGROFLORESTAS Vista aérea de área de restauração em agroflorestas em São Félix do Xingu-PA.) © Denys Costa