COP26: World leaders promise to end deforestation by 2030

There are reasons to be cheerful about the proposed plan to limit deforestation, specifically the scale of the funding, and the key countries that are supporting the pledge.

It is also very positive that it will try to reinforce the role of indigenous people in protecting their trees. Studies have shown that protecting the rights of native communities is one of the best ways of saving forested lands.

But there are significant challenges.

Many previous plans haven’t achieved their goals. In fact, deforestation has increased since a similar pledge was launched in 2014.

There are often disputes between donors and recipients – Norway suspended funding for an Amazon fund in 2019 in an argument with Brazil’s president.

There are also major questions over how a major financial pledge could be effectively policed.

How can funders verify that forests are actually being protected without spying from satellites or challenging national sovereignty in some way?

And question marks also hang over a key plank of the new plan, which is to try to remove the link to deforestation from consumer goods sold in developed countries.

One aspect is eating meat from animals, raised on imported soy grown on cleared lands. Will governments push companies and consumers to eat less meat to save the world’s most important forests?

“But maybe this is realistic and the best that they can achieve.”

What was the failed 2014 agreement?

The New York Declaration on Forests was a voluntary and legally non-binding agreement on deforestation in 2014

It aimed to half deforestation by 2020, and halt it by 2030 – and 40 governments eventually signed up. But some key countries like Brazil and Russia weren’t among them

But the agreement failed, a report in 2019 found, saying deforestation was still continuing at an alarming rate.

The deal’s signatories include a number of key countries.

Indonesia is the world’s largest exporter of palm oil, a product found in everything from shampoo to biscuits. Production is driving tree destruction and territory loss for indigenous people.

Meanwhile, Russia’s huge natural forests, with more than one fifth of the planet’s trees, capture more than 1.5 billion tonnes of carbon annually.

In the planet’s biggest rainforest, the Amazon, deforestation accelerated to a 12-year high in 2020 under Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

Asked whether leaders like Brazil’s Mr Bolsonaro could be trusted to abide by the pledge, the UK’s Environment Secretary George Eustice said “we should be really positive when countries engage”.

“Last time there was an attempt at getting such a commitment on forests [in 2014], Brazil didn’t take part, neither did Russia, neither did China.

“Brazil, they’ve really engaged with us on this agenda. It’s a big step for them.”

But pressed on whether the agreement will be enforceable, Mr Eustice said: “It doesn’t go as far into talking about enforcement mechanisms and so forth, that’s not the nature of these agreements.”

He said what was different about this pledge in particular is that there is “the finance to back [it] up”.

US President Joe Biden said he was “confident” the global pledge could be met, telling world leaders: “All we need to do is summon the will and do what we know is right. We can do this.”

He said the US would lead by example, and announced it would spend $9bn (£6.6bn) to conserve and restore forests.

Ana Yang, executive director at Chatham House Sustainability Accelerator, who co-wrote the report Rethinking the Brazilian Amazon, said: “This deal involves more countries, more players and more money. But the devil is in the detail which we still need to see.”

But many people living in the Amazon, including in its urban areas, depend on the forest for their livelihoods and they need support in finding new incomes, she added.

Prince Charles told COP26 delegates that nations had to “honour” the rights of indigenous people as they were “experienced custodians” of their habitats. And speaking to members of the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities – representing 24 countries with tropical rainforests – he said: “We’ve got to work harder to save your forests, for all our sakes.”

Tuntiak Katan, from the Coordination of Indigenous Communities of the Amazon Basin, welcomed the deal, saying that funds should be invested in supporting indigenous communities who are able to manage and protect forests.

Mr Katan, an indigenous Shuar from Ecuador, told the BBC indigenous communities globally protected 80% of the world’s biodiversity but faced threats and violence.

“For years we have protected our way of life and that has protected ecosystems and forests. Without us, no money or policy can stop climate change,” he said.