Kimberly White
Hello and welcome to Common Home Conversations. Today we are joined by Dr. Izabella Teixeira, Co-Chair of the United Nations Environment Programme's International Resource Panel and former Minister for the Environment of Brazil. Thank you for joining us today, Izabella.
Dr. Izabella Teixeira
Thank you for inviting me to join you. Okay, my pleasure.
Kimberly White
So, you have dedicated your life to protecting nature, what was the driving force for this passion?
Dr. Izabella Teixeira
It's a hard question because I have been working the last 35 years considering environmental issues, not only in Brazil but also at the global level. I'm a biologist, and I learned how fascinating life is, the diversity of life is. And I was born in the last century, in the 60s, and it was a moment in the world that the 70s and 80s and 90s that we are preparing how you live in this century, in the new century. So environmental issues were emerging as strategic global issues, and I was really fascinated to have the opportunity to join not only to move forward considering the developing issues in my country, and how can bring development together with environmental preservation and conservation, but more also how we can have an inclusive approach, consider the diversity of societies and those in my country also, and also the inequality, social equality used to bring things together since my early years. So I think that environmental agenda and sustainability agenda it was during my career that the decisions emerge, and also you're able to join, consider the global multilateral agreements, and also the global summits, etc., etc., but always trying to manage better the national realities in Brazil and, how we can bring people together. So it's, for me, it's beyond the science, beyond the politics, means that we can be together, and this fascinated me. I love the diversity of the planet, and not only the biological ones, okay? And this, the possibilities to discover, to rediscover the world, and to be closer to other people. This is something that still today makes sense for me to move forward. So how to be part of the world in a way that you can contribute to better quality of life and improve the relationship between humankind and nature; as a biologist makes sense for me.
Kimberly White
Absolutely. And you are from one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. So I imagine that definitely had an influence on your career decisions to protect nature.
Dr. Izabella Teixeira
Yes, fantastic, because I started working in 1984 after my graduation, and also I was fully dedicated to scientific research. And I was provoked to join an environmentalist in Brazil that was charged to create the new institutional arrangements, institutional governance in Brazil to manage environmental issues, not the natural resource issues on your biology as in the traditional way that they used to be approached. And it was a big challenge. And this man changed my life. And his name was Paulo Nogueira Neto, a famous conservationist around the world. And also, I was absolutely introduced to this political world; the environmental politics, indeed, how the multilateral assessment will bring us together. The big challenges that we will face and we still face today consider climate change the global issue like by diverse conservation and also how a country like Brazil is a high biodiversity assets not only in Amazonia, but in the Amazon forest, but also tropical forests like Atlantic Forest, and also the diversity of biomes, how we can bring this together, how you can use this in a better way to promote the development that you need.
Kimberly White
Well, you've certainly had a very impressive career. And I know that you achieved an incredible 84% reduction in deforestation of the Amazon, the lowest historical deforestation rate. It has been called the largest ever global contribution for emissions reduction. Can you tell me more about this?
Dr. Izabella Teixeira
Yes, when I checked the numbers today. And I look back to the past, just remember my professional career, when we in Brazil were fully engaged to tackle deforestation in Amazonia. And we established the first national program to go against deforestation, and you learn a lot with this process. I was part of the environmental enforcement team in the Brazilian institution that we call IBAMA, an environmental institution. And I was part of this staff that went into Amazonia to tackle deforestation. And it was very nice because it was not only the environmental constituency but also the science- it came together. And so you bring together deforestation and also fires. The need to develop the scientific knowledge, the need to have an alliance, and I was charged to negotiate the first memorandum of understanding between Brazil and the United States and learn more how we manage and tackle forest fires, how we can move on considering this agenda. And along my career, I had the opportunity to manage important international programs like the National Environmental Program together, the first one with the World Bank, and also the famous PPG7.
So, when I was minister, you have this experience in Brazil, you know that Brazil we have been improving our knowledge in the last 20 years, exactly how to manage better the enforcement, environmental enforcement in Brazil, not only in Amazonia. And, unfortunately, deforestation in Amazonia is around 95% based on illegality, this environmental crime you have a powerful legal framework in Brazil to tackle these problems. And indeed to have the full capacity, a scientific one, but also institutional ones to bring institutions, public institutions, together and to go against deforestation, to go against environmental crime.
And Brazil, in 2009, 2010, we launched our first national climate change policy that supports us to address better the outcomes. So what I'd like to highlight is that I have the huge opportunity to connect innovative public policy like biodiversity conservation, it is the most important protected areas program in the world, around six million hectares, under biodiversity conservation protection in the Amazon region. Together, this is part of a legacy. And also, we promoted the second and third phases and to address better with civil society, new innovative governance models, such a way that you can bring things together.
So, it's not only going against the illegalities; we use these outcomes to promote innovative public policy on climate change and biodiversity conservation and also to address solutions considered global sustainability when Brazil host the Rio+20 conference 2012 and also in Brazil develop innovative public policy like genetic resource access, the Nagoya protocol, etc. etc., make sense to be bringing things together. We cannot have a fragmented approach to address global issues. We need to understand how to connect and how to bring new narratives, develop a narrative, an economic and social one that makes sense for environmental conservation. So, I'm very honored to host, not only to work hard, that I did, but also to host the legacy from other partners that were fully engaged to address in our recent, the last 35 years of environmental history, in Brazil, how we learn as society, learn as a public institution, we learn as an environmental government, also international cooperation, how you can join, how we can be together to tackle the il...
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