The world's first "nature superpower" | Ilona Szabó de Carvalho

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2:41I mean, what do trees do anyway? They help us breathe. But just as crucially, they foster incredible biodiversity unique to the region's ecosystem. Deforestation isn't just about the trees. And even more problematic, it's happening illegally, which means it's harder to regulate. But perhaps the way to solve this problem is not through policing and prosecution, but instead by reimagining and creating a whole new economic paradigm where we reaffirm our necessary relationship to the natural world. I'm Madupa Akinola. This is TED Business. a podcast from TED. Our speaker today is civic entrepreneur Ileona Saboa de Carvalho, and she's here to share some of the lessons she's learned from trying to develop a new economy where profit comes from protecting natural resources, not just extracting them.

3:38Then after the talk, I'll share a parallel I've seen in my own work and travels. But first, a quick break.

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4:56And now, Ileona Saboa de Carvalho takes the TED stage.

5:04Ilona Szabó de Carvalho: A nature's superpower. Sounds great, right? But what does it mean? In Brazil, achieving superpower status goes far beyond renewables and green tech. It starts with fundamentally redesigning our relationship with nature. Over half of global GDP depends on everything nature provides for free. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the stability of our climate. That's why bringing nature to the forefront of policy, from international diplomacy to economic planning. It's easy to understand our reasons. Brazil hosts the biggest tropical forest on Earth. We have one of the widest and longest rivers on the planet.

5:50Ilona Szabó de Carvalho: We're more biologically diverse than any other nation, with more kinds of plants and animals and microbes and fungi. Well, you get the point. I'm an entrepreneur, and I've seen the path for how Brazil and other countries can truly become nature's superpowers. But before we go there, we need to overcome big challenges. And the biggest of them all is deforestation. Over the past 40 years, an area larger than California has been cleared to make way for progress in Brazil. And what makes this problem more challenging is that over 90 % of deforestation in Brazil is illegal. Trees cut down today are connected to illicit economies like land grabbing, wildlife trafficking, illegal gold mining, and dodge agriculture and ranching practices.

6:46Ilona Szabó de Carvalho: These environmental crimes are a big business, generating around$280 billion a year in illicit profits globally. And all of this illegal deforestation has planetary consequences, taking our carbon forest storing too close to the point of no return. So we need to change this up because this is stabilizing our food production and our water and climate security. I've spent the last few decades preventing and reducing crime, including those below the forest canopy. My team supports police, prosecutors, financial crimes experts to track illegal products and follow the money across the Amazon basing.

7:32Ilona Szabó de Carvalho: But here's the truth. We can't police our way out of this problem. We're just too big. The Amazon alone is larger than the European Union. So yes, of course, we need better policing and prosecution. But above all, we need to make standing forests more valuable than cleared land. We urgently need a new economic paradigm that recognizes the value of everything nature gives us, like forests, but also water, soil, minerals, and clean air. This new model should leverage our natural capital and create entirely new economies that work with nature and not against it. And the good news is that this isn't wishful thinking.

8:22Ilona Szabó de Carvalho: It's already happening. And the Greenbridge facility that I founded is at the frontier of this agenda. So let me share with you a few of the steps Brazil is taking to become a nature superpower. So first, make nature core to your national identity. Brazilians are finally embracing our tropical forests and other ecosystems. Nature is being mainstreamed into national, regional, and global commitments and plans. In 2023, the Brazilian government announced an ecological transformation plan and investment platform. A centerpiece of this strategy involves creating a truly nature-based economy, a point I'll come back to.

9:06Ilona Szabó de Carvalho: At the regional level, Brazil is working with our eight Amazonian neighbors to scale up conservation and sustainable development. Brazil is also exporting nature positive priorities to the global policy arenas like the G20, BRICS, and the UN Nature and Climate Conferences. Second, build an inclusive and innovative bioeconomy. New bioeconomies that promote nature-based supply chains are sprouting up across Brazil, from food to cosmetics and textiles. And what makes Brazil's approach to bioeconomy powerful is that it's rooted in indigenous and local knowledge. The country is creating partnerships with multilateral and national development banks to create and speed up bioeconomy value chains and jobs.

9:59Ilona Szabó de Carvalho: On the ground, transformation is being led by impact accelerators like Amaz and by a new generation of companies. One of them is Natura, a global pioneer in the cosmetic sector. Natura puts a premium on sustainably harvesting Amazon ingredients while empowering traditional populations who depend on the forest. They recently partnered with a forest intelligence company called Bioverse, and together they mapped the largest inventory of forests ever undertaken in Brazil. And they did this in record time, completing in six months a task they say would normally take 25 years. With satellites, drones, and AI, they improved the identification of products, sustainably increasing the yields of harvesters who depend on the forest.

10:51Ilona Szabó de Carvalho: They are part of a growing ecosystem of Brazilian entrepreneurs and philanthropies like the Arapiaú Institute that are connecting harvesters to responsible buyers, from restaurant holdings like Grupo Trigo to binchubar chocolate makers like Dango. Third, create a new economic sector focused on nature restoration. To achieve our Paris Agreement commitments, Brazil has to get to zero deforestation by 2030 and restore 12 million hectares on the way. It's a kind of natural industrial policy. Restoring such a big area could generate around$140 billion and up to 2.5 million jobs. These are big numbers.

11:40Ilona Szabó de Carvalho: And to speed this up, the country has launched public-private partnerships to protect, restore, and sustainably manage massive public forest concessions. Brazilian restoration startups are also scaling up carbon capture and high-integrity credits like Regreen and Belterra with their ecological and agroforestry models. Because after all, being a nature superpower isn't just about protecting and restoring nature. It's also about creating a new economic sector in a way that it's better for the people, cheaper and more scalable than other carbon capture alternatives. And finally, make nature a high-integrate asset class.

12:27Ilona Szabó de Carvalho: Brazil is also pioneering nature finance innovations to unlock resources. Carbon credits, they're just the beginning. Biodiversity units, payments for ecosystem services, and sustainability-linked bonds are also emerging to jumpstart nature markets. One compelling idea is Brazil's Tropical Forest Forever facility. The TFFF, as we call it, features a new$125 billion fund that will support long-term forest conservation. The fund will pay tropical forest countries and reward frontline communities for every hectare of forest they keep standing or restore. Becoming a nature superpower doesn't happen by chance.

13:15It demands bold leadership, investment in the bioeconomy, prioritizing nature restoration, and sustainable financial innovation.

13:25Ilona Szabó de Carvalho: For this to happen, we must recognize that forests and nature are worth far more alive than dead. And if Brazil succeeds in building these new economic models that truly value nature, many other countries can follow. And as a result, we all win. Thank you.

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16:01That was Ileona Saboa de Carvalho speaking at the TED Countdown Summit. Ileona presents us with a crucial perspective. Forests are worth more alive than they are dead. How can we incentivize people to protect them? How can we partner with people who've lived on that land for centuries, who know it best, and involve them in big decision-making? Listening to this talk, I couldn't help but think of my own experience traveling through Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya over the past decade. I've been on safari multiple times on these trips, and once I even had the pleasure of bringing my students.

16:38These experiences revealed some hard truths and some hope for the future. For years, illegal poaching and deforestation decimated the wildlife in these countries. Gorillas, elephants, rhinos, these were just some of the animals under threat. Thankfully now, much of the tourist industry is centered on conservation. It's motivating to see a new economic model that places value on preserving these animals' habitats rather than destroying them. For instance, permits are required to enter most game parks. And only a limited number of permits are given per month to minimize human foot traffic in the environment.

17:18I also love the fact that permit fees are much lower for locals than for tourists, allowing locals to experience all that there is to see in their country. Of course, wildlife conservation in these countries is a complicated story. It carries the weight of a colonial past. After all, so many of the big game hunters and global market for these poached animals came from outside these countries to begin with. And conservationists are still navigating how to partner with the people who live there and have lived there for years. But recent efforts show that you can change public opinion on how to treat the natural world.

17:55And we need that now more than ever. That's it for today. TED Business is part of the TED Audio Collective. This episode was produced by Hannah Kingsley-Ma, edited by Alejandra Salazar, and fact-checked by Julia Dickerson. Special thanks to Maria Ladias, Farah DeGrunge, Daniela Ballarezzo, Tansika Sangmanivang, and Roxanne Heilash. I'm Madupa Akinola. Thanks for listening.

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