The Amazon protection Plan

Policy Recommendations for U.S. Action for Amazon Forests

Amazon Protection Plan

The Amazon Protection Plan focuses on four core policy levers to protect the Amazon rainforest, and to provide benefits for Amazon nations and the global community. The Climate Principals recommend the administration commits to pursuing the plan in close partnership with indigenous and environmental advocates, business leaders, and national and subnational governments to secure the future of this vital natural resource.

Protecting the Amazon

Core principles & Policies

Public & Private Funding

While success will depend on coordinated global action, the United States will need to do its part to mobilize needed funding for the Amazon region. The Biden-Harris administration should consider:

Inviting CEOs of major U.S. companies to a White House summit to secure corporate commitments to collectively finance at least one billion tons of greenhouse gas emission reductions in the Amazon by 2025.
Working with Congress to expand the Tropical Forest & Coral Reef Conservation Act to enable the administration to negotiate debt-for-climate swaps with our allies in the Amazon region. This effort should offer Amazon nations new types of debt relief and/or debt guarantees in exchange for ambitious climate and forest action, across a broad range of potential debt instruments.
Convincing Congress to allocate to the Amazon (and other tropical forest protection, as appropriate) five percent of any new revenues generated from carbon fees and fuel surcharges, if and when adopted.
Leveraging other U.S. bilateral and multilateral foreign assistance programs—from the Agency for International Development and the Millennium Challenge Account to U.S. export credit agencies and international financial institutions such as the World Bank—to support forest conservation, forest restoration and climate-friendly sustainable development in the Amazon region. The administration should consider directing Amazon assistance toward:
- Implementing rural sustainable development strategies
- Preventing and controlling forest fires
- Intensifying agricultural production by family farms on previously deforested land
- Providing forest-friendly economic development opportunities
- Rewarding jurisdictions that reduce deforestation through results-based payments
- Strengthening land tenure and the rights of indigenous peoples
- Improving forest governance and combating forest crime
- Partnering with allied donor governments and private philanthropy
We recommend the administration consider setting a goal that 25% of international climate finance from the United States should support forests and other natural climate solutions across the globe, particularly in the Amazon.

Forest-Friendly Trade

The administration should consider harmonizing U.S. trade and climate policy for the Amazon. U.S. imports should not fuel illegal deforestation, reward criminals or create an uneven playing field. Specifically, the Climate Principals recommend the administration consider:

Working with Congress to expand the Lacey Act to prohibit the importation of agricultural commodities grown on illegally deforested land.
Augmenting funding for and enforcement of the Lacey Act, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other laws that deter forest crime abroad.
Ensuring that future trade agreements strengthen tropical forest governance and rule of law, including by promoting local law enforcement and prohibiting the importation of products grown on illegally deforested land.

Transparent and Clean Supply Chains

The administration should strive to make sure that U.S. companies, investors, consumers and capital markets do not contribute to Amazon deforestation. The Climate Principals recommend the administration consider:

Requiring consumer goods and agricultural companies to conduct due diligence and report on deforestation in their supply chains.
Requiring U.S. companies and financial institutions to disclose, report and manage deforestation-related climate risk, building from the framework created by the Task Force in Climate-related Financial Risks.

Robust Diplomacy

The administration will need to strengthen international alliances to turn protecting the Amazon into a true global priority. The Climate Principals recommend it consider:

Negotiating diplomatic agreements to incentivize the protection of forests under local laws and policy frameworks, including through results-based payment systems that are consistent with the Paris Agreement.

- Securing a global consensus that all countries should establish their own quantitative national targets for forest and land use emission reductions under the Paris Agreement. Those who are able should consider not only establishing such goals at home, but also setting quantitative goals for assisting other countries to finance their own forest and land use emission reductions.
- Building support for the inclusion of high-quality forest carbon credits in international markets, to assist with the transition to full decarbonization of the global economy, without detracting from climate action in other economic areas.

Strengthening safeguards for the Amazon and other forests in bilateral, regional and global development finance, including for U.S. foreign assistance and funding provided by multilateral development banks.

Working with Europe, Japan, China and other major economies to align international efforts and thereby spread globally the policies outlined above.

Statements From the Principals

"This is a balanced plan aimed at taking urgently needed action to protect the Amazon rainforest based on targeted economic incentives, public and private funding, the sharp reduction of global demand for goods that drive illegal deforestation, and constructive engagement with Brazil that is premised on respect for its national interests and awareness of its desire to participate in various international economic and trade arrangements."

"The Amazon rainforest is absolutely essential to the world. It stabilizes the Earth's climate and rainfall, sustains many tens of millions of people and is home to more wildlife than anywhere else on Earth. Because the Amazon holds so much carbon and that carbon gets released when the rainforest is destroyed, protecting the Amazon must be an essential part of solving the climate crisis. President Biden deserves credit for pledging to make the Amazon a U.S. foreign policy priority and the policy recommendations we have released today provide a blueprint for mounting an effective global effort."

"Protecting the Amazon will require action by the private sector. Our Amazon Protection Plan would create powerful incentives for companies and investors to clean up corporate supply chains, increase transparency, reduce corruption and crime, and finance sustainable development in the Amazon region."

“Brazil has always been a major player in global climate cooperation, going back to the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. President Biden’s Amazon pledge should be seen by Brazil as a hand of a partner extended in respect and friendship. The world needs Brazil to be a green superpower."

Statements of Support

“The Amazon is the greatest tropical forest in the world. It is Nature, interconnected in all of its richness and diversity. The climate crisis puts the Amazon at risk. Deforestation in the Amazon worsens the crisis. Protecting the Amazon helps to protect the climate, and all of us. Climate and nature converge. They are inseparable. Protecting the Amazon requires leadership from governments, businesses, civil society and indigenous peoples in the region. And we need support from allies, in the US and in the rest of the world. We cannot do it alone. We must work together to tackle the linked problems of environmental crime, green and inclusive development, nature loss and the global climate crisis."

“Norway applauds President Biden’s commitment to Amazon protection. The recommendations shared today by a bipartisan group of former US climate leaders are constructive and consistent with Norway's approach. We look forward to working with the United States to support governments in the Amazon region that are taking ambitious action. We welcome President Biden's leadership mobilizing an effective global response that benefits local people and the planet."

"Germany welcomes President Biden's commitment to sustainable development and forest protection in the Amazon. The plan put forward today by former US cabinet officials is promising and aligns well with European policy. We look forward to working with the United States and Amazon countries to advance ambitious solutions that benefit all."

“It is essential to invest in the protection of the forest, in programs that protect Amazonia and its biodiversity and natural resources. Consider Indigenous Peoples and their representative institutions as partners, including to receive financial support to develop their ongoing projects, and to hear the and provide space for their participation and creation of plans and actions."

Biden-Harris Administration Meeting The Moment

The U.S. Climate Principals Group welcomes President Biden and Madam Vice President Harris’ commitment to strengthening U.S. climate policy, rejoining the Paris Agreement and convening world leaders to accelerate global action to address climate change, which they have rightly characterized as an existential threat to humanity. We also endorse the Biden-Harris commitment to mobilize $20 billion to protect the Amazon rainforests, which are disappearing at an alarming rate and are critical to the climate system, public health, human rights, and biodiversity.

Protecting the Amazon will require new policies, skilled diplomacy and great determination. We are confident the administration understands that solutions must benefit the countries, communities and forest-dependent people in the region by contributing to sustainable development.

U.S. efforts to protect the Amazon should be carried out in partnership with our allies in South America and around the world. As President Biden and Madam Vice President Harris have said, we need to engage Brazil constructively in the spirit of friendship and with new economic incentives. Additionally, the administration should also seek to expand current U.S. support to other globally significant tropical forest regions, including Mesoamerica, Indonesia and Southeast Asia and the Congo Basin as well.

Implementing the Amazon Protection Plan fully will require cooperation from Congress, of course. Fortunately, protecting the Amazon has been a bipartisan American foreign policy goal for decades. With support from both parties in Congress, Presidents over the past twenty years have championed the protection of the Amazon. With strong leadership from the Biden-Harris administration, we hope Congress will continue to support this important agenda. If helpful, we will assist the administration in rallying support for Amazon protection.