French President Emmanuel Macron visits the Amazon for the first time in Belem, Brazil on March 26, 2024. Macron met with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and indigenous leaders. Filipe Bispo / Anadolu via Getty Images
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French President Emmanuel Macron and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met this week in Belém — host of the 2025 United Nations COP30 climate talks. The leaders agreed to launch a $1.1 billion green investment plan for the Amazon rainforest.
The four-year plan would be financed by public and private funds.
“Gathered in Belém, in the heart of the Amazon, we, Brazil and France, Amazonian countries, have decided to join forces to promote an international roadmap for protection of tropical forests,” the countries said in a joint statement, as Reuters reported. “The presidents expressed their commitment to the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of the world’s tropical forests and agreed to work on an ambitious agenda, including… developing innovative financial instruments, market mechanisms and payments for environmental services.”
During the three-day visit, Lula and Macron met with Indigenous leaders and Macron honored the Kayapo People and environmental activist Raoni Metuktire — who has fought to protect Indigenous rights and the Amazon rainforest — with France’s National Order of the Legion of Honor.
Raoni requested that Lula not approve the building of a 620-mile planned railroad because of the impact it will have on the Indigenous People, who Raoni said were not consulted.
The announcement of the investment agreement said it included support for “indigenous people and local Amazon communities, which have an essential role in protecting biodiversity through their traditional knowledge and forest management practices,” reported Le Monde.
As president of the Group of 20 nations, Brazil is an advocate for emerging economies that Paris is looking to build relationships with.
“We are living in a Franco-Brazilian moment,” said the Élysée Palace of the French president, which highlighted “many points of convergence” with Brazil on “major global issues,” as France 24 reported.
“France is an essential, unavoidable actor for Brazilian foreign policy,” said Maria Luisa Escorel de Moraes, the head of Europe’s Brazilian diplomacy.
Announcement of the investment plan includes the proposal of a “carbon market” intended to reward investments by nations in natural carbon sinks like the Amazon rainforest.
Last year, Brazilian Amazon deforestation was cut in half following environmental law enforcement implemented by Lula’s government.
After a low point in Brazil-France relations concerning the environment in 2019, things have improved.
“After a four-year eclipse and a virtual freeze in political relations between our two countries during Bolsonaro’s presidency, we are in the process of relaunching the bilateral relationship and the strategic partnership with Brazil,” an adviser to the French president said, as reported by Reuters.
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