Deforestation accounts for 25% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, more than the whole global transport sector. Without urgent action to halt deforestation, we haven’t a chance of beating global Climate Change. 

After meeting local government representatives in the state of Manaus, I travelled to the Juma reserve in Amazonas, a ‘high risk’ area of the rainforest and home to some 322 local families.

Normally families such as these are under severe economic and sometimes physical pressure to deforest their land to make way for pastureland or highway expansion, but in the Juma reserve, the Amazonas State Government is pioneering a new model of sustainable development.

By placing a monetary value on the standing forest, patrons of the project from across the globe can invest in a kind of carbon offset by contributing to the project’s running costs.

So how does it work? The residents of the Juma reserve receive vital infrastructure investment, resources for teaching and business development and assistance with sustainable farming. In return, they become guardians of the forest, pledging to monitor and safeguard every tree in the protected area.

During my visit, the overwhelming impression was of a community eager for progress and development. Education, access to healthcare and technology are all desperately needed in Juma and through this project there is a clear win for sustainable development as well as avoided deforestation.

The inhabitants of the reserve that I met were well aware that the benefits of deforesting their land are short-term and insufficient to guarantee any real improvement in their quality of life. They explained, though, that economic pressure and an unwillingness to sacrifice their community life for a move to neighbouring cities such as Manaus, had left communities such as theirs with few alternatives.

Families on the Juma reserve are currently planning a new school, a solar  panel and a clinic in a truly unique example of progress going hand in hand with sustainability and a respect for the autonomy and way of life of the indigenous people. If the current rate of destruction continues elsewhere, however, not only will communities like Juma suffer, but global temperature, rainfall, even oxygen levels will all be affected in ways we are currently powerless to combat.

Rainforests are far more that just huge carbon sinks. They are not only the ‘lungs’ of the world but are also home to an incredible 50% of all of the world’s species of animals and plants, existing together in a fragile equilibrium. Yet with 50,000 plants, animals and insects becoming extinct every year due to rainforest deforestation, we stand to lose one to two thirds of all species of plants, animals, and other organisms during the second half of the next century. The less diverse an ecosystem the less stable and productive it is, which is why the extraordinary biodiversity of the rainforest makes it one of the most important and unique environments on the planet. If this ecosystem were to crash, the knock on effect for the rest of the world would be disastrous.

In the time it took to read this sentence, 3 acres of rainforest have disappeared. If deforested, Juma alone would have released 210 million of tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. To say there will be no rainforest left by 2050 seems a vague and distant threat. 1 .6 billion people left without homes or livelihood is too great a number to imagine. Over a quarter of Western medicine comes from rainforests, but only 1% of plants have been tested for medicinal qualities so far. Once this habitat is destroyed and the species contained in it become extinct, we can never replace them.  

But without urgent action and strong leadership, not just from the West but through partnerships with governments in the developing world, this is a very real danger.

On my return we decided that CCHQ and the leader’s office would offset our unavoidable emissions through the Juma scheme, joining other patrons like the Marriot Hotel chain in seeing the added benefits of this kind of approach. I’m pleased to say that my constituency office will also be joining the scheme.

Strong bilateral projects like Juma, that recognise the true value of rainforests and their communities, are our best chance of reducing deforestation in the short term. On a more ambitious, long term scale Britain should be taking a lead in driving a truly comprehensive global deal on CO2 emissions that will allows countries like Brazil to realise the true value of their standing timber.