By Ali Syed
Rainforests are the oldest living ecosystems on the planet from the Mesozoic era, tracing their existence back to the dinosaurs. There are two kinds of rainforests; temperate and tropical, thriving on every continent except Antarctica. While temperate rainforests are found near cooler mountainous regions, tropical rainforests are in warmer places between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. As the name implies, tropical rainforests are extremely wet, receiving approximately 33ft of rainfall every year, making them an exceptionally biodiverse habitat. While rainforests make up 6 % of the earth’s area, they are home to over 50% of plants and animal species. This biodiversity extends beyond the boundaries of the rainforests, producing critical agricultural products including medicines. In fact, 70% of plants used for cancer treatment are found in the rainforests. Besides this, rainforests regulate Earth‘s temperatures by absorbing massive amounts of solar radiation including absorbing carbon dioxide and converting it into oxygen subsequently, contributing to 40% of Earth’s breathable air.
Over the past few centuries, rainforests have disappeared at an alarming rate with factors such as economic equality, human development, and demand for natural resources exacerbating the deforestation of rainforests. At the current rate of deforestation, 70 million-year-old rainforests may disappear in the next century. The primary reason for this accelerated rate of deforestation after the industrial revolution has been our insatiable appetite for energy resources to fuel our material consumption. This coupled with social inequality and unethical farming and mining have made the destruction of pristine and rich bio-habitats kosher for the short-term profitability of corporations and countries.
Amazon in Brazil, Congo in DR of the Congo, and the Borneo rainforest in Indonesia are the three largest rainforests by size, spreading across their borders to neighbouring countries, pre-dating the concept of Nation-state and our human species. Despite their vastness, International dialogues on rainforests are mired in deadlocks across Multilateral forums on Environment and Climate Change. All major multilateral forums including the G20 have hosted dialogues on the conservation and reforestation of the rainforests. At the G20 summit in Indonesia in 2022, President Lula de Silva of Brazil, home to the largest rainforest cover, signed the Rainforest Triple Alliance between the DRC, Brazil, and Indonesia as they collectively hold 52% of the rainforests of the world. President Silva termed this as a natural alliance based on ‘South-South cooperation’ to reverse deforestation and pressure the developed world to finance their efforts. With the increasing carbon emission and global temperatures, rainforests have become indispensable to mitigating the climate crisis acting as carbon sinks while we wean off fossil fuels.
India, hosting the G20 Presidency 2023, is home to the 8th largest rainforest spread mainly across the Western Ghats. India can bolster this ‘Triple Rainforest Alliance’ further as a trusted partner and a dominant advocate for South-South cooperation in combating climate change. The dialogue on environment is one of the key components of India’s presidency, embedded in the theme ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’ underpinning all aspects of sustainability through the concept of LiFE (Lifestyle for the environment). Climate discussions in the G20 forum are covered through the ‘Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group (ECSWG)’, which was first held in Bengaluru, followed by Gandhinagar. The broad areas covered under this working group include: the blue economy, reforestation, biodiversity, and arresting land degradation, all relevant to the protection of rainforests. However, due to the critical nature of the rainforest to combat climate change, an isolated and dedicated effort is needed to address the reforestation of the rainforests of Brazil, Indonesia, and Congo.’
The Indian presidency was preceded by Indonesia and succeeded by Brazil; forming a Troika. Moreover, the African Union as the guest observer, makes the Indian presidency pivotal to driving this agenda across successive presidencies. India as a self-proclaimed leader and proponent of South-South and triangular cooperation could prioritise the protection of rainforests to drive the global agenda on Climate change. India’s much-needed support to the Rainforest Triple Alliance with its popular G20 presidency holds substantial benefits for the initiative, beginning with redeeming it from the state of consternation and obscurity across multilateral forums. Three key takeaways emerged during the first and second G20 Sustainable Finance Working Group (SFGW) meetings: 1) adequate mobilisation of Climate Finance, 2) enabling finance for SDGs, and 3) Capacity building of the ecosystem for financing towards Sustainable development.
India on boarding the rainforest agenda, a concentrated effort may accelerate the perennial climate financing deficit. Additionally, institutionalising mechanisms to share technical know-how to protect abundantly rich biodiverse rainforests, home to rare species, Dolphins in the Amazon, Chimpanzees in the Congo, Orangutans in Borneo and the Nilgiri Tahr of the Western Ghats form a robust knowledge-rich framework. The loss of their habitat also means the extinction of species endemic to rainforests. Unfortunately, with incessant mining, monoculture plantations for cash, and unorganised urbanisation, we are rapidly and irreversibly destroying the rainforests and subsequently the fragile ecosystem of our planet.
India’s inclusive G20 forum is an opportune moment to build consensus on restricting the trade of products originating from the rainforests. Most importantly, International cooperation on Climate financing for reforestation of the rainforests and supporting the livelihood of communities inhabiting these regions will reduce social inequality while saving the ‘lungs of the earth’.
The author is a consultant for G20 with RIS and Sustainability enthusiast. Tweets @Alinyst
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