Hanna and Jennie field study in Brazil-first impressions

“Our first impression of Brazil is how fantastically diverse it is regarding their culture and people but also the nature.

View from Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf Mountain, now restored to its natural state.

As part of our research, we are conducting a field study in the Atlantic Forest, one of the most degraded forests in the world, with only eight percent of its original coverage remaining. Through discussions with public and private sector stakeholders, it has become evident that there is a substantial financial gap in biodiversity conservation. Today, most funding comes from philanthropic donors and public institutions, while private sector engagement remains limited.

One of the challenges is to get the private sector engaged. Today there is a lack of understanding how dependent companies are of nature for their production, whether it’s cosmetics, beverage or energy, either direct or indirect or perhaps both. We have had interesting conversations with companies that are in the lead of incorporating nature into their business model, recognising that protecting natural ecosystems is essential to their long-term survival.

From another perspective, even if the climate funding is in place, there can sometimes be difficulties in mitigating them to the right projects.  However, there are a lot of things going on and that’s on the move. One specific difficulty for Brazil is the monitoring of different policies and regulations after they have been put into place, given Brazil’s vast geography and remote landscapes.

As we were sitting on a bus ride between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, we noticed that what was now bare forest land had once been a rainforest. On the other hand, we have also seen restoration and conservation being done. We went up to Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf Mountain) where they had restored the entire mountain to the natural state of Atlantic rainforest it once had with its local natural biodiversity.” 

We met with Maria Eduarda de Assis, INSTITUTO IGARAPRÉ.

One of our meetings was with Instituto Igarapé, an independent Brazilian think tank that actively works on climate and environmental security, with a particular focus on the Amazon rainforest. They conduct research and develop solutions to combat environmental crimes and reduce deforestation in the region. They were for instance present at Davos. 

Instituto Igarapré website: https://igarape.org.br