The World's First "Nature Superpower" | Ilona Szabó De Carvalho  ## Metadata - Author: [[TED Talks Daily]] - Full Title: The World's First "Nature Superpower" | Ilona Szabó De Carvalho - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/8fb1e2d5-b347-42d6-b83c-114df1b1ee1a ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Nature As National Identity** - Brazil's natural assets — the Amazon, vast rivers, and unmatched biodiversity — form the basis for a national identity and economic advantage. - Ilona Szabó de Carvalho argues these assets should drive policy and international leadership to remake the economy. Transcript: Ilona Szabó de Carvalho A nature's superpower. Sounds great, right? But what does it mean? In Brazil, achieving superpower status goes far beyond renewables and green tech. It starts with fundamentally redesigning our relationship with nature. Over half of global GDP depends on everything nature provides for free. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the stability of our climate. That's why I bring nature to the forefront of policy, from international diplomacy to economic planning. It's easy to understand our reasons. Brazil hosts the biggest tropical forest on Earth. We have one of the widest and longest rivers on the planet. ([Time 0:02:56](https://share.snipd.com/snip/488440be-adc1-446d-9a0c-abebe3222604)) - **Illegal Deforestation Is A Huge Crime Economy** - Over 40 years Brazil lost an area larger than California and over 90% of that deforestation was illegal. - Ilona connects illegal clearing to a $280 billion global environmental crime economy threatening climate and water security. Transcript: Ilona Szabó de Carvalho And the biggest of them all is deforestation. Over the past 40 years, an area larger than California has been cleared to make way for progress in Brazil. And what makes this problem more challenging is that over 90 percent of deforestation in Brazil is illegal. Trees cut down today are connected to illicit economies like land grabbing, wildlife trafficking, illegal gold mining and dodgy agriculture and ranching practices. These environmental crimes are a big business, generating around $280 billion a year in illicit profits globally. And all of this illegal deforestation has planetary consequences, taking our carbon forest storing too close to the point of no return. ([Time 0:04:06](https://share.snipd.com/snip/869b25f1-ffad-4990-82c6-1c23c8454e3c)) - **Working With Law Enforcement** - Ilona describes supporting police, prosecutors, and financial experts to follow illegal-product money across the Amazon basin. - She reports that policing alone can't solve the problem because the Amazon is larger than the EU. Transcript: Ilona Szabó de Carvalho My team supports police, prosecutors, financial crimes experts to track illegal products follow the money across the Amazon basin. But here's the truth. We can't police our way out of this problem. We're just too big. The Amazon alone is larger than the European Union. ([Time 0:05:15](https://share.snipd.com/snip/15087831-cc34-4d2d-b066-185951694e1c)) - **Make Forests More Economically Valuable** - Make standing forests more valuable than cleared land by redesigning economic incentives. - Revalue natural capital so policies reward protection of forests, water, soil, and clean air. Transcript: Ilona Szabó de Carvalho But above all, we need to make standing forests more valuable than cleared land. We urgently need a new economic paradigm that recognizes the value of everything nature gives us, like forests, but also water, soil, minerals and clean air. ([Time 0:05:40](https://share.snipd.com/snip/acaece9a-1402-4570-ab10-38887e1723cc)) - **Policy Mainstreaming And Regional Strategy** - Brazil is mainstreaming nature into policy at national, regional, and global levels, including an ecological transformation plan in 2023. - Regional cooperation with eight Amazon neighbors scales conservation and sustainable development. Transcript: Ilona Szabó de Carvalho So let me share with you a few of the steps Brazil is taking to become a nature superpower. So first, make nature core to your national identity. Brazilians are finally embracing our tropical forests and other ecosystems. Nature is being mainstreamed into national, regional and global commitments and plans. In 2023, the Brazilian government announced an ecological transformation plan and investment platform. A centerpiece of this strategy involves creating a truly nature-based economy, a point I'll come back to. At the regional level, Brazil is working with our eight Amazonian neighbors to scale up conservation and sustainable development. ([Time 0:06:22](https://share.snipd.com/snip/f68e4118-f7ef-4e1b-9e1a-e407a665ecd7)) - **Bioeconomy Fueled By Indigenous Knowledge And Tech** - A new bioeconomy in Brazil builds products from sustainably harvested forest ingredients rooted in indigenous knowledge. - Companies like Natura and Bioverse used satellites, drones, and AI to inventory forests in six months, not 25 years. Transcript: Ilona Szabó de Carvalho New bioeconomies that promote nature-based supply chains are sprouting up across Brazil, from food to cosmetics and textiles. And what makes Brazil's approach to bioeconomy powerful is that it's rooted in indigenous and local knowledge. The country is creating partnerships with multilateral and national development banks to create and speed up bioeconomy value chains and jobs. On the ground, transformation is being led by impact accelerators like Amaz and by a new generation of companies. One of them is Natura, a global pioneer in the cosmetic sector. Natura puts a premium on sustainably harvesting Amazon ingredients while empowering traditional populations who depend on the forest. They recently partnered with a forest intelligence company called Bioverse, and together they met the largest inventory of forests ever undertaken in Brazil. ([Time 0:07:24](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e22607ec-0f17-4d45-8b88-ac54fb884b77)) - **Market Connections For Forest Harvesters** - Ilona cites accelerators like Amaz and organizations like the Arapiaú Institute connecting harvesters to responsible buyers. - She names Grupo Trigo and Dango as examples of companies sourcing sustainable forest products. Transcript: Ilona Szabó de Carvalho They are part of a growing ecosystem of Brazilian entrepreneurs and philanthropists like the Arapiaú Institute that are connecting harvesters to responsible buyers, from restaurant Holdings like Grupo Trigo to binchubar chocolate makers like Dango. ([Time 0:08:44](https://share.snipd.com/snip/6ba647f7-6d2e-4665-8dea-39b898f0b60e)) - **Build A Restoration Industry** - Create a large nature-restoration sector to meet Paris goals: zero deforestation by 2030 and 12 million hectares restored. - Use public-private partnerships and startups to scale restoration, carbon capture, and agroforestry models affordably. Transcript: Ilona Szabó de Carvalho To achieve our Paris Agreement commitments, Brazil has to get to zero deforestation by 2030 and restore 12 million hectares on the way. It's a kind of natural industrial policy, restoring such a big area, who generate around $140 billion and up to 2.5 million jobs. These are big numbers. And to speed this up, the country has launched public-private partnerships to protect, restore, and sustainably manage massive public forest concessions. Brazilian restoration startups are also scaling up carbon capture and high-integrity credits like Regreen and Belterra with their ecological and agroforestry models. ([Time 0:09:09](https://share.snipd.com/snip/b500e5ae-0118-4844-a007-f746c869e4b9)) - **Finance Forests As Long-Term Assets** - Develop high-integrity nature finance like biodiversity units, payments for ecosystem services, and sustained bonds. - Launch large funds such as the Tropical Forest Forever facility to pay countries and communities per hectare conserved or restored. Transcript: Ilona Szabó de Carvalho Brazil is also pioneering nature finance innovations to unlock resources. Carbon credits did just the beginning. Biodiversity units, payments for ecosystem services, and sustainability-linked bonds are also emerging to jumpstart nature markets. One compelling idea is Brazil's Tropical Forest Forever facility. The TFFF, as we call it, features a new $125 billion fund that will support long-term forest conservation. The fund will pay tropical forest countries and reward frontline communities for every hectare of forest they keep standing or restore. ([Time 0:10:20](https://share.snipd.com/snip/51177d07-469f-468b-9694-09b1163b95c0))