The climate crisis is the focus for the foreign minister and the labor minister in northern Brazil. According to the WWF, 20 percent of the original area of the Amazon region has already been destroyed.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Labor Minister Hubertus Heil have campaigned for international support in the Amazon region in the fight against deforestation and for sustainable development in the region. “We have already paid in millions for the Amazon fund in the past. This trip also serves to make millions more available for it,” said the Green politician on Wednesday. Before that, she and her SPD colleague had met with female representatives from local cocoa cooperatives and women’s organizations on the island of Combu near the northern Brazilian city of Belém.
The Amazon is considered the lungs of the world and plays an important role in the international fight against climate change. It is spread across nine South American countries, with Brazil accounting for the largest share. According to the nature conservation organization WWF, the largest rainforest in the world with an area of around seven million square kilometers binds twelve percent of the freshwater on earth and is home to ten percent of all species in the world. The WWF calculates that around 20 percent of the original area has already been destroyed. According to scientists, a tipping point could be reached at 25 percent, from which point the ecosystem can no longer regenerate.
Baerbock and Heil are campaigning for international support
“This trip also serves to make millions more available for this,” said Baerbock. “And we are appealing to other major countries in this world to do the same.” Germany has already paid 55 million euros into the Amazon fund. A further 35 million euros have been promised.
In Germany, especially during budget negotiations, the question often arises as to why the fourth-largest economy is the second-largest international donor, said Baerbock. “Because it’s also a question of security for us. If supply chains like here with South America don’t work, then others fill the gap, like the Chinese, for example, who don’t care about social or climate standards.”
In addition, Germany otherwise has no access to the markets in the region, said Baerbock. Therefore, the commitment to sustainability with social standards is also in the economic interest. “We are both campaigning together in the budget negotiations that a social and sustainable foreign and development policy also contributes to strengthening the German economy.”
Baerbock: Not exploitation, but local value creation
More raw materials would be needed, said Baerbock. One wants to diversify in view of the dependence on China. This requires trust from the local partners. “You have to be able to rely on us doing it differently. Not exploitation, but ensuring value creation on site,” said the Green politician. “That’s why this cooperation here is also a strong economic and security policy issue.”
Heil said Germany has an interest in free trade around the world. “But we have to make sure it’s a fair trade.” This also applies to ecological standards, “because the world is vulnerable, because there is only one global climate” and because the Amazon region is “a lung of the world that we need to breathe for us and our children”. People should be able to work. “And it is in our interest that this happens with fair working and wage conditions,” said Heil.
Baerbock and Heil had visited the island with representatives of local initiatives and a cocoa cooperative. In the evening (local time) the joint journey of Baerbock and Heil ended. The Foreign Minister wanted to continue to Colombia. Heil is on his way back to Germany this Thursday.
Environmental Control Agency oversees deforestation and afforestation
In the afternoon in the city of Belém (Portuguese for: Bethlehem), Baerbock and Heil looked at the work in a wood processing company. Later, both German ministers wanted to find out more about the work of the environmental control authority in Belém. Among other things, the deforestation of the Amazon region is monitored there and replacement afforestation is planned. The tropical rainforest is observed with the help of satellite and radar images.
Belém is located south of the world’s largest river island in the Amazon estuary and at the mouth of the Rio Guamá. With around 1.5 million inhabitants and around 2.5 million in the metropolitan area, the city is the largest and most important city in the Brazilian Amazon region after Manaus. Brazil’s government is promoting Belém as the venue for the COP30 climate change conference in 2025.
Amazon region important CO2 store
The Brazilian Amazon region is considered an important CO2 store. During the tenure of right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro (2019 – 2022), deforestation and slash-and-burn increased sharply. The ex-military saw the rainforest primarily as untapped economic potential and gave farmers and gold miners a largely free hand when it came to land grabbing. He reduced funds for the control authorities or deprived them of their powers. The new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, was not exactly considered a Green in his previous two terms of office (beginning of 2003 – end of 2010). But now he has promised to strengthen environmental and climate protection. The police recently went ahead with a large-scale operation against illegal gold prospectors.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
