Customary welcome then walk between the trees: it is in the heart of a national park in Papua New Guinea that Emmanuel Macron announced on Friday a partnership to “remunerate” the country for its efforts to preserve the primary forest, a model that France wants to generalize.
On the heights of the Varirata National Park, near Port-Moresby, the capital of this island state of Oceania, the French president advances accompanied by the Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape, falls the jacket then the tie.
Black walking shoes on his feet, he walks two kilometers in the forest to a breathtaking panorama, renamed for the occasion, banner in support, “Point de vue Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron”, according to all the surnames of the Head of State.
Rich in minerals and other natural resources, close to the main maritime routes, Papua New Guinea has become a key issue in the strategic standoff between Westerners and China.
Faced with Beijing’s growing influence in the region, the United States is betting in particular on defense cooperation and has signed a security pact with Port-Moresby.
France, which in terms of means cannot compete with these two superpowers, has decided to emphasize the environment, as Emmanuel Macron explained Thursday in Vanuatu by detailing its “Indo-Pacific strategy” during a stage of his regional tour.
Primary forests, “it’s 14% of the surface of the globe, 75% of what we call irrecoverable carbon, that is to say that when we deforest, we burn, and we release carbon and therefore in a way we are going back”, explained Thursday, in situ, the French president.
However, he noted, the international community is already funding reforestation efforts, but “there was absolutely no economic model to help preserve this existing”.
According to a new executive announced at the One Forest Summit, which he organized with Gabon in Libreville in March, the idea is now to conclude contracts with the countries concerned so that “there is remuneration” in exchange for the “environmental services that are provided by these primary forests” and therefore their preservation.
The first contract of its kind was launched on Thursday with Papua New Guinea. At this stage, it is funded to the tune of more than 60 million euros by the European Union.
Paris hopes to go much further, by mobilizing other G7 countries on this initiative between now and COP28 on the climate in early December and, ultimately, to get the private sector on board on this “new economic doctrine”, through financial instruments still to be cleared, explains an adviser to the French president who recognizes that this ambitious project may take time to materialize.
Non-governmental organizations, philanthropists like Conservation International, Wildlife Conservation Society or the Bezos Fund are already on board, as well as UN agencies.
Between now and COP28 in the United Arab Emirates, France also wishes to develop this model partnership with other countries affected by the presence of primary forest, concentrated in Southeast Asia, in the Congo River basin and in Amazonia. Starting with Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“There is a subject of international justice”: “we tax carbon at the borders”, “we tax deforestation at the borders by prohibiting the import of products resulting from deforestation”, but “we do not remunerate” the countries ” the most exemplary, which absorb carbon”, we argue on the French side.
The Papua New Guinean Prime Minister thanked the French President, “who has become the champion of forest nations”.
“I am counting on my brother President Emmanuel Macron to speak globally in the world. We cannot talk about climate change without talking about the protection of forests and oceans and the green economy”, he told him.
At the same time, the two countries signed other agreements. The French Development Agency, which is gaining momentum in the Pacific, particularly on climate issues, has undertaken to finance the rehabilitation of Papua New Guinean ports with European partners and Australia, to develop a “model of eco-responsibility “.
07/28/2023 09:04:43 – Varirata National Park (Papua New Guinea) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
