How the U.S. Can Help Save the Amazon
The Biden administration should use creative diplomacy and incentives to change the Brazilian government’s behavior.
The rainforest is still burning.
Photographer: Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images
In his push to combat climate change, President Joe Biden has vowed to take action to protect the Amazon rainforest. That means getting Brazil’s populist government to cooperate. A combination of incentives and creative diplomacy offers the best chance of success.
Over the last half-century, development in the Amazon basin, a region that spans eight countries, has shrunk the rainforest by 17%. In Brazil, which accounts for more than half of the basin, deforestation caused by logging, mining, cattle ranching and farming has increased by 47% since the election of President Jair Bolsonaro in 2018. Last year’s clear-cutting was the highest in a decade. Scientists fear that the ecosystem is approaching a tipping point and will no longer be able to replenish itself. Further depletion of the world’s largest carbon sink would put the Paris Agreement’s global-warming goals in jeopardy.