How Belt and Road proposals can be adapted for the Amazon

The Amazon is the world’s most extensive forest and river system and a provider of ecosystem services that have benefits on a global scale. However, various economic activities — both legal and illegal — have led to the loss of vast forest areas. In 2020, the Amazon lost some 2.3 million hectares of forest.

These pressures have intensified the effects of climate change and the social and economic vulnerability of mainly rural and indigenous populations. This vulnerability can be particularly acute in countries such as Brazil, Colombia, and Peru, which are three of the most dangerous places for environmental activists.

Balancing the conflicts of environmental degradation, development, and economic growth has long been a challenge for Latin America and the Caribbean, which face significant infrastructure gaps and genuine needs for investment. Against this backdrop, 19 countries in the region have joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which proposes economic, commercial, social, and cultural integration, mainly through the development of transport and energy projects.

However, since its launch in 2013, the development of rules applicable to the BRI has so far not kept pace with investment — something that new guidelines jointly issued this year by two Chinese ministries seek to address. But such policies, we argue, should go further to acknowledge the specific character of...