GeoOptics in the Brazilian Amazon for the 15th Annual Meeting of the GCF Task Force 15th

Last month, the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force (GCFTF) celebrated 15 years at its annual meeting in the Amazon State of Acre, Brazil. The GCF Task Force is a subnational collaboration of 45 states and provinces working to protect tropical forests while promoting sustainable rural economic development.  In 2010, the GCF Task Force’s founding responded to two fundamentally important ideas:

1) That durable market-driven economic incentives are critical to drive sustainable use and conservation of forests and their ecosystem services; and

2) That engagement of subnational governments is a critical part of determining the future of forests.

GCFTF is still here fifteen years later because these were, and are, both really good ideas. And like most real solutions to hard problems, they’re not implemented overnight.

The world depends on forests: for food, fiber, water, medicine, shelter, and as a fundamental part of the global carbon cycle. Forests trap carbon (roughly 15.6 billion metric tons/yr), protect local watersheds, and at scale can even affect regional and global weather patterns.  They are storehouses of the biodiversity that we draw on for medicines, pollinators for our crops, and soil enrichment that feed our managed food systems.

These are all “ecosystem services” that our economies depend on directly. Yet for as long as our economies have existed, we have assigned those ecosystem services a dollar value of zero, while the extraction of forest products is calculated at their market value.  This one-sided equation used to determine how we should use forests has resulted in a historical rate of forest loss that is, not only destroying forests, but also pumping about 8 Gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere every single year.

But if living healthy forests have a market value, not only for the products they can provide but for the ecosystem services that we also gain from them, then the one-sided equation starts to shift dramatically.

The GCF Task Force embraces this as an opportunity, and one where states and provinces that house tropical forests are critically important decisionmakers and implementers. Subnational governments weren’t always spart of the conversation on the fate of forests. Despite having tremendous responsibility and proximity to what actually happens to forests on the ground, subnational jurisdictions were often overlooked or simply constrained by a lack of resources, capacity, and mandate.

Fifteen years later, the GCF’s membership now represents 85% of the world’s tropical forest area.  Indigenous and local communities, non-profits of all stripes, scientists, and the private sector are engaged as well. In Brazil, where are nine Amazon states have been active and collaborative members for years, federal policy on forests and carbon markets is now aligning with the efforts that governors sustained during the difficult years of the previous federal administration. As the next host of the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties in the Amazonian State of Pará, the Brazilian federal government showcased this collaboration with the presence and engagement of Minister of Environment Marina Silva in the plenary, to the thrill of the conference hall.

Subnational jurisdictions are also part of the global conversation on governance and private markets.  And the world is working out, not if forests should be economically valued for the ecosystem services they provide, but precisely how we will do so in the most equitable, effective, and accurate ways possible, while recognizing the need to build sustainable economies on what forests help to produce.

So, what is GeoOptics’ role here? This was not my first GCF annual meeting – I’ve attended a few over the years. But it was my first meeting looking through a private sector and a technology lens.  We know that the private sector is a critical partner in making markets for ecosystem services like carbon storage happen. While governments frame their forest and carbon market policy, the success of market-based approaches for forests will ultimately lie with the markets. At GeoOptics, we believe we will be able to expand what is possible with markets for forests and other ecosystem carbon.  By enabling better measurement at lower cost, our technology can massively expand the potential of nature-based solutions, but we are only at the leading edge of what we believe this technology can do.

With years of experience in the forest carbon realm, I’m well aware that technology is not a singular solution – but arming practitioners with the best data available sure does help. It’s also critical to recognize that the best technology in the world won’t have an impact if it doesn’t fill the right needs, or only a handful of people can use it. That’s why partnerships are critical. We want partners, not only to demonstrate a technology’s capability, but to expand that capability  so that it is usable by everyone, from remote sensing and machine learning experts to community forest managers using a handheld device.

I could think of no better place to jump into the deep end on forests and nature-based solutions than the GCF Task Force in the Brazilian Amazon – and this year’s meeting delivered. Stay tuned for further reflections on this journey from our fearless CEO, Alex Saltman.