by Sebastien GOULARD
French President Emmanuel Macron visited Belem on 26 March, 2024, for a three-day official visit to meet his Brazilian counterpart, Luis Lula da Silva, who chairs the G20. Together, they announced the launch of a green investment programme for the Amazon totalling 1 billion euros. Before traveling to Brazil, President Macron stopped in French Guiana, where he announced the creation of a legal gold mining sector to better combat illegal sites that endanger the Guianese environment. French Guiana is an integral part of the Franco-Brazilian plan for the Amazon.
The Amazon remains the world’s largest primary tropical forest, and its role is crucial in combating climate change through the carbon emissions it absorbs. Under the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2023), the state of the Amazon forest deteriorated. The former Brazilian president encouraged deforestation for the benefit of large agricultural enterprises. President Lula, in office since January 2023, hopes to reverse this trend, notably through a new national plan launched last June aimed at eliminating Amazon deforestation by 2030. This plan relies on satellite imagery to track illegal activities in the Amazon forest and also on better management of land titles. The programme will also monitor transactions for the purchase of forestry equipment. This is an ambitious initiative led by the Lula government. Brazil, which holds the rotating presidency of the G20 for 2024, aims to represent the voice of developing countries that must balance environmental protection and economic development. President Lula has shown great determination on environmental issues, stating at the last G20 summit held in New Delhi September 2023 that the world faces “an unprecedented climate emergency.”
Protecting Forests and Ensuring the Development of the Bioeconomy
France and Brazil aim to develop their bioeconomy sector, producing, using, and transforming bioresources to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. In 2018, France launched an initial action plan to support this sector, one of its objectives being to mobilize funding to promote its growth. In Brazil, the bioeconomy has become a pillar of the economic strategy under President Lula, with the nomination of General Secretariat for the Bioeconomy in 2023. For Brasilia, it is essential to promote new sectors related to Amazon protection, in particular, to make livestock and soy production, which encourage deforestation, less attractive. This requires investments from the state as well as from the private sector, including support for research exploring new bioeconomy-based solutions.
The Franco-Brazilian Plan
This new Franco-Brazilian plan for the bioeconomy aligns with the roadmap prepared by the two heads of state for the COP30, to be held in Belem in 2025. To achieve the goal of 1 billion euros in public and private investment for the Amazon, Brazil and France have committed to working together on several fronts. The first is to enhance dialogue between French and Brazilian administrations on bioeconomy issues, with a better coordination between the two countries. This plan also envisages a technical and financial partnership between the French Development Agency (AFD), present in Guyana and Brazil, and two Brazilian public banks, Banco da Amazônia (BASA) and Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES). This programme cannot materialize unless French and Brazilian companies in sustainable development sectors are engaged and form new partnerships, hence actions will also be proposed through the appointment of facilitators for Brazilian and French private enterprises. The two countries have also decided to strengthen their research partnership to identify new sustainable sectors in the Amazon through a scientific agreement between the International Cooperation Center for Agronomic Research for Development (CIRAD) and the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa). Finally, another aspect of this plan concerns the establishment of a research and investment centre on bioeconomy technologies, which can rely on the Franco-Brazilian Center for Amazonian Biodiversity (CFBBA) and new cooperation agreements between French and Brazilian universities.
Towards a Global Bioeconomy Plan
The Franco-Brazilian plan should be seen as a first step towards a more comprehensive strategy. Together, France and Brazil advocate for a global bioeconomy plan to better guide public and private investment in this sector. The success of the Franco-Brazilian initiative is therefore an essential element for the adoption of a global plan by the international community.
Involvement of Local Communities
Bioeconomy projects cannot succeed without the involvement of local actors, who, thanks to the opportunities offered by the bioeconomy, abandon deforestation. Local populations are not excluded from the Franco-Brazilian plan; on the contrary, when announcing this initiative, the French and Brazilian presidents teamed up with Raoni, Chief of the Kayapo people and a figure in Amazon defence. This means that the Franco-Amazonian plan for the Amazon must also include an educational component aimed at training local populations in the bioeconomy.
For the French president, this plan opens up new prospects. It thus confirms France’s role in forest protection, a role President Macron assumed by hosting the One Forest Summit in Libreville, Gabon, in March 2023. This plan should also promote new cooperation with Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, in innovative sectors related to renewable energy and green finance.
Author: Dr. Sebastien Goulard is the founder and editor-in-chief of Global Connectivities.
