Looking forward: What to expect from the next two weeks of the Forest COP

Source: Global Forest Watch, “Global Tree cover loss”, 2025

What are COPs, and are they succeeding?

COPs are annual events during which parties discuss how to deliver the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) aim of preventing “dangerous” human interference with the climate system.

So how is the UNFCCC doing?

According to these three alarming charts, not very well.

Source: Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser, 2023

Will the Belém meeting turn those charts upside down? Sadly not, but it is an important space to discuss how to do so. For more about previous forest-related COP commitments, see our earlier round-up (FW 305).

Sources: NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, 2024/ Ed Hawkins, Warming Stripes. University of Reading, 2024

Forest events to watch out for:

• November 10-11: Bioeconomy thematic days. Civil society, such as the Biomass Action Network, will call for an end to subsidies for burning biomass (wood) for energy at events such as Not all Bio is Green (11 November 11:30-12:30 in the Blue Zone). The Centre for Climate Crime Analysis (CCCA) also opens on 11 Nov under the theme Climate Justice Across Borders, including interventions from Fern. The Green Livelihoods Alliance is hosting an event on “From pledges to locally-led climate action”; the Danish Pavillion will host the launch of the Global Forest Friendly Food Fund, and a series of related events over the following days (see also FW 309 for background).
• November 12-13: Culture, Justice and human rights thematic days. Fern will launch its Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF) analysis at an event that opens space to showcase other, more direct ways to fund Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities forest protection. We will also host an event with Observatorio Socioambiental, 12 November at 10:15 a.m., at COP do Povo – Sala 4, that explores the idea of a Brazilian Forest Observatory, a system designed by a wide group of stakeholders that maps the overlap of deforestation, and social and land tenure conflicts.
• November 14-16: Energy, Industry, Transport & Carbon markets thematic days. Fern will head to the FORD Foundation Pavillion to report on their event about Direct Funding for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLC) and the Forest Tenure Funders Group Pledge. We will also attend the Peoples’ Summit and join them for the 15 November Global March, one of a series of worldwide marches intended as a cry of resistance against climate inaction.
• November 17-18: Planetary and community stewardship thematic days. Peoples For Forests, a movement to build solidarity among defenders of forests, community rights and climate, will return on 17 November, in the Cultural Pavillion; hosted by MídiaNINJA, we will launch a joint land rights letter. WWF will also be hosting a Forest Action Day.
• November 19-20: Food, agriculture, and equity thematic days. The Climate Land Ambition and Rights Alliance (CLARA) NGO platform will launch their report on the gap between planned land use and the amount of land that is available. These days will also focus on support for the Belem Declaration on Plant-Rich Diets.

Throughout the two weeks we will focus on listening to, learning from and opening space for Indigenous Peoples. Many Indigenous Peoples groups are using the COP as an opportunity to get their messages across, such as The Pledge We Want and The Answer Is Us.

So please follow us – on Linkedin, in next month’s Forest Watch – to hear all about the forest-related outcomes from Blue Zone negotiations; the good, bad and the ugly forest-related innovations being proposed in the Green Zone; and the practical solutions being proposed in the various NGO houses, camp sites and on the streets. An overview of what is happening at the Ford Climate Justice Pavilion is available here.

Image: A work of art - inspired by what the forest means to Indigenous Peoples - by six urban artists from the Brazilian Amazon. Midia Ninja/The Bureau of Investigative Journalism