This editorial was published in Finnish in issue 8/2025 of the Yliopisto magazine.
An international fund for the conservation of tropical forests will be established at the UN Climate Change Conference to be held in November in Brazil. According to current knowledge, China, among others, intends to endorse the fund. This is what President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said in his speech to the UN in September.
The story of Brazil and its president with regard to tropical forest conservation is interesting. Over the years, Brazil has made a turnaround in relation to its forests and international treaties.
In 1992, the UN organised in Rio de Janeiro the Conference on Environment and Development. Biodiversity loss and forests were discussed at the conference, as widespread deforestation in the Amazon basin was brought to the attention of the world.
Many countries participating in the conference – including Finland – advocated for an international agreement on forests aimed at, among other things, halting deforestation in the tropics. No such agreement was concluded at the time, as developing countries, under Brazil’s banner, refused to accept any control of their forest use through international treaties.
During Lula da Silva’s first term as president in the early 2000s, deforestation of the Amazon in Brazil was enormous, almost two million hectares per year. Ten years later, it had diminished by some 70%.
Lula da Silva’s administration had implemented several effective measures. According to estimates, the drop in emissions brought about by the reduced deforestation in the Amazon was close to the annual emissions of the EU as a whole. Some consider this to be one of the biggest actions against climate change to date.
The current complex geopolitical situation easily directs the focus away from environmental issues. Moreover, many countries – including Finland – are abandoning their climate goals.
Still, improvements are also evident. Greenhouse gas emissions from China, the world’s largest polluter, are starting to decline. At the same time, Brazil, the country with the most extensive deforestation in the tropics, is now seeking to establish a profile as a protector of tropical forests.
Yliopisto is a scholarly magazine published by the University of Helsinki and committed to the journalistic guidelines of the Council for Mass Media in Finland.