During COP16 in Cali, CAF - the development bank for Latin America and the Caribbean - and O.N.E. Amazon signed an agreement to protect the Amazon rainforest, one of the planet's most important and vulnerable biomes, through innovative projects that also promote the socioeconomic development of local communities.

In the context of COP16 in Cali, CAF and O.N.E. Amazon have joined forces to protect and conserve the Amazon rainforest, one of the most crucial and biodiverse natural ecosystems on the planet. The agreement establishes a framework for collaboration on an instrument that transforms the Amazon biome using blockchain, supported by rigorously scientific data. This innovative initiative will generate financing in capital markets for conservation projects.

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Jaime Andrés Niño, AECOM Executive Vice President LATAM, Rodrigo Veloso, Founder and CEO ONE Amazon, Sergio Diaz-Granados, Executive President of CAF, Alicia Montalvo, Climate Action and Positive Biodiversity Manager CAF (Photo: Business Wire)

The Amazon rainforest is vital for global sustainability, housing millions of species and indigenous communities, and playing a key role in climate regulation, oxygen production, and carbon capture. However, it faces increasing challenges, such as accelerated deforestation, which, if it continues at the current rate, could eliminate 27% of its tree cover by 2030.

This alliance initiates a nature-based solution that converts voluntary conservation commitments for the Amazon over a 30-year period into tradable digital assets in international markets, providing investors with accurate and high-quality information about protected hectares. The goal is to demonstrate that assigning value to the protection of the 750 million hectares that make up the Amazon biome can generate sufficient financial returns to compensate those preserving it, and even free up resources for the conservation of other crucial ecosystems in Latin America and the Caribbean.

In response to this threat, O.N.E. Amazon and CAF have committed to collaborate and innovate to implement this instrument, coordinate with official authorities, communities, and the private sector involved in and governing the Amazon, promote financial regulation on digital assets, and incentivize the formulation of ecosystem conservation projects.

“This effort is a concrete example of how nature conservation can be valued to generate direct and sustainable financial returns for those protecting ecosystems. This initiative will demonstrate that preserving the planet is a profitable investment and that nature-based solutions have the potential to become concrete and powerful responses for the sustainable development of our countries,” said Sergio Díaz-Granados, Executive President of CAF.

“Our primary intention is to ensure that the Amazon is valued more as a rainforest than for any other economic activity. That’s why we are collaborating on this digital asset, where 70% of the value of these assets goes to an impact fund that makes sustainable investments,” mentioned Rodrigo Veloso from O.N.E. Amazon.

With this agreement, CAF and O.N.E. Amazon commit to working together to preserve this vital ecosystem, not only for Latin America and the Caribbean but for the entire world, utilizing innovative, viable, secure, reliable, and sustainable market mechanisms in the long term.

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