"It's about regulating, legislating, and laying the foundations so that forest dwellers become entrepreneurs, which they really want," said Gustavo Montezano, president of the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) in Switzerland. , a country of which 60% of the territory is in the Amazon.

The bank is financing the re-greening of the Amazon in the face of a culture that for years has been to believe, according to Mr. Montezano, that “destroying the forest creates economic value”.

The Amazon basin, with an area of ​​7.4 million km2, covers almost 40% of South America and extends over nine countries, with an estimated population of 34 million people, two thirds of whom live in cities. .

With this in mind, many are calling for strengthening the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (OTCA), which has existed since the 1970s to protect the forest and which in 2019 reaffirmed its transnational ambition, although not all countries are not part of it.

The disappearance of the Amazon rainforest Valentin RAKOVSKY AFP

Colombian President Iván Duque for his part advocates a carrot and stick policy: punishing deforestation while encouraging the sustainable cultivation of fruits such as copoazù, a tree close to the cocoa tree, or increasingly fashionable berries. like acai and camu camu.

After Brazil, Peru is the second country with the largest territory in the Amazon, "a region historically forgotten by the state", according to Vice President Dina Boluarte, who called for the purchase of fruits "at a fair price". grown in the region.

But this "bioeconomy", described by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as the sustainable transformation of biological resources, requires the help of public administrations in order to become a real alternative to activities such as cattle ranching or mining, which destroy the rainforest.

Proximity to roads

A study conducted by the Venezuelan economist Ricardo Hausmann, professor at the American University of Harvard and minister in the 1990s, shows that the proximity of roads built by local governments promotes cattle ranching, and therefore deforestation.

The breeder needs good road infrastructure to sell the production.

"90% of deforestation occurs within ten kilometers of roads. And who builds these roads? Mayors and governors," says the economist, pointing out the contradictions sometimes between local and national policies.

Also of concern is biopiracy, which involves the exploitation of biological resources, such as the extraction of medicinal plants by large corporations, which affects nature and indigenous peoples.

The BR230 road, known as "Transamazonica", near Ruropolis, Brazil, September 6, 2019 Johannes MYBURGH AFP / Archives

At the international level, mechanisms that charge for carbon emissions still do little to limit deforestation: the price of a ton of CO2 is too low to deter activities that are harmful to the Amazon.

"Only if the price is set correctly will people stop what they are doing. Changing incentives will be more effective than coercion," Mário Mesquita, chief economist at Brazil's Itaú Unibanco bank, told Davos.

Despite these difficulties, the governor of the state of Parà, which produces the most acai in Brazil, was optimistic: Helder Barbalho still considers it possible to "reconcile the people with the economy" in order to save the Amazon. .

© 2022 AFP