But this lush harmony comes with a warning. If the negotiators COP30 To hope to protect the world’s forests, they must first protect the people who care for them.
Chocolate, community and vision for the future
Just a 30-minute boat ride from Belém – known as the “gateway to the Amazon rainforest” and host city of this year’s UN climate conference – Combu is home to the Filha do Combu association, created by Izete Costa, affectionately known as Dona Néna. Her initiative is proof that community solutions can fuel global climate action.
What started as a modest effort to turn traditional knowledge into income has grown into a thriving business. Having started out producing chocolate on a small scale from Amazonian cocoa, Dona Nena sold at local fairs before undergoing professional training to expand her business.
Today, she runs a small factory and a tourism program that invites visitors to learn how chocolate is made in the rainforest. Of the 20 workers employed on the site, 16 are women.
The production system is agroecological: native species collaborate to enhance yields. Rows of banana trees, for example, are planted to attract the pollinating bees essential to cocoa.
“I generally enrich the forest with what works well, because here we haven’t cut down the forest to plant trees,” Dona Nena told us. “We work with the forest, and we research and plant trees where there is natural decline.”
President of the 80th session of the General Assembly, Annalena Baerbock (foreground), tastes cocoa from Combu Island, near Belém, Brazil.
Solar energy and its development
The chocolate factory – whose products are sold throughout Brazil – runs eight hours a day on solar energy. But power outages remain a challenge. When a fallen tree cuts the power, machines can go unused for days. Dona Nena hopes to double solar capacity to avoid damage and keep production stable.
Dealing with a fragile electricity network is one thing, but Combu is not immune to climate impacts either. Recently, cocoa harvests have declined; fruits and trees dry out, shrink and become deformed. And the fear of losing access to drinking water grows day by day. Despite the rainy season, not a single drop has fallen on Combu for more than 15 days, says Dona Nena.
From local solutions to global action
It is in this context that Annalena Baerbock’s visit took place on Sunday, her second trip to Combu after her first meeting with Dona Nena as German Foreign Minister.
Upon her arrival, Ms Baerbock told UN News she was happy to see the project thriving, generating “production chains…at the heart of regional communities”. [so] the advantages [can stay here] for the natives, for the local population.
For Ms Baerbock, the initiative is proof that real solutions already exist – solutions that combine economic growth, sustainable development and the fight against the climate crisis. She stressed that connecting these large-scale models is essential to keeping global warming below 2°C, ideally 1.5°C.
“The destruction of forests is the destruction of the life insurance of humanity,” she warned, before adding: “COP30 must be a COP where we show everywhere in the world that, especially in difficult geopolitical times, the vast majority of countries, but also people around businesses, financial actors join hands to fight the climate crisis and, thus, ensure sustainable growth for all. »
The President of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Annalena Baerbock, meets with Brazilian entrepreneur Dona Nena on the island of Combu, near Belém.
Lessons from the forest
After tasting Amazonian fruits and several chocolate recipes prepared on site, Dona Nena took Ms. Baerbock on a trail through the forest, where they had met a group of producers two years earlier.
They discussed the project’s focus on empowering women who sell their products through the Filha do Combu association. Dona Nena emphasized that women bring a unique energy of care and dedication that shapes the quality of chocolate.
All along the trail, the forest itself offered symbolism. Together, they watch a taperebá tree slowly die under the influence of a parasitic vine.
Dona Nena pointed out that once the tree dies, the vine will die too, deprived of its only source of nutrients. Baerbock said this was a diplomatic lesson in disguise, which could even be linked to the emissions that are devastating the planet.
But the forest also offered hope. They stopped in front of a sumaúma, a giant of the Amazon more than 280 years old. These trees can reach 70 meters and have witnessed centuries of history, and could experience centuries more if COP30 is successful.
UN NewsEastreport from Belémgiving you front row coverage of everything happening at COP30.
Publicado anteriormente en Almouwatin.
