Brazil, Indonesia, and DR Congo are home to more than half of the world’s tropical rainforests, and have now formed a tripartite alliance aimed at better preserving them amid the worsening global climate emergency.

The countries signed an agreement on November 14, capping years of occasional negotiations. The deal has been dubbed ‘Opec for rainforests’, with the member governments calling the alliance a major step that will help protect the Brazilian Amazon, the Congo Basin, and the Indonesian rainforest. The forests generate life-supporting oxygen while absorbing carbon dioxide, a powerful greenhouse gas.

The partnership will co-operate on rainforest conservation efforts and urge rich nations to help with funding. But critics say that the agreement falls far short of concentrated on-the-ground action. While deforestation has reportedly slowed in Brazil’s Amazon region and Indonesia, conservationists say the reductions are merely modest following record highs, while the destruction of tree cover in the Congo Basin has surged.

Environmentalists are pessimistic that the three members of the alliance will ultimately meet a pledge signed by more than 140 countries to “halt and reverse” deforestation by 2030. They say indigenous groups should be given more of a say in critical decision making.

In this episode of The Stream, we will hear from conservation experts about the urgent challenge of protecting critical tropical rainforests often called “the lungs of the world”.

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