Founded in 2021, the Nature-based Solutions Brazil Alliance aims to promote an agenda to combat deforestation, encourage the restoration of degraded areas and the implementation of regenerative practices by strengthening nature-based solutions and the carbon credit market in Brazil. The organization unites project developers, non-governmental and integrity organizations and impact investors that together are responsible for more than 70% of the Brazilian nature-based solutions’ credits issued since 2022 (Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use). The creation of guidelines and best practices to promote integrity in the sector is at the heart of the organization’s work.
What are Nature-Based Solutions?
Nature-based solutions are a set of actions that reduce and remove greenhouse gas emissions. These actions protect, sustainably manage and restore natural and modified ecosystems, simultaneously benefiting people and nature. REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), ARR (Afforestation, Reforestation & Restoration) and ALM (Agricultural Land Management) projects are examples of NBS.
REDD, Restoration and Agriculture:
NBS projects are extremely important to avoid forest deforestation and the emission of carbon into the atmosphere. It is also essential for sequestration of CO2 from the atmosphere through the restoration of ecosystems and the transition of agricultural practices to a low-carbon path.
Brazil in the global carbon market:
According to McKinsey, Brazil emits less than 1% a year of its potential of carbon credits. The country has the capacity to represent 15% of the world's carbon capture projects by natural means.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), human activities have already caused an increase of 1oC compared to pre-industrial levels. In order to maintain safe levels of temperature increase (within 1.5oC), we need to achieve net-zero emissions savings by 2050.
Action is imperative. If the world is to achieve these goals, we must gradually move towards new paradigms: low-emission industries and the use of fuels from renewable sources.
The magnitude of this challenge calls for the adoption of multiple actions, of different dimensions, in order to reduce GHG emissions, including in the short term. In this sense, investments in Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) are essential and necessary for the transition to a net zero economy.
Thus, Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) must play a central role in combating climate change in the coming decades, and initiatives aimed at reducing emissions from the deforestation of tropical forests must play a central role for Brazil, both in environmental and economic terms.
Developing innovative solutions that reconcile the social and economic development of regions with tropical forests, based on the conservation of these biomes and the sustainable use of natural resources, is one of the keys to connecting Brazil to the new economy of the 21st century, based on sustainability and the valuation of environmental services. The Amazon has thus become a provider of essential environmental services for the world.
