On the banks of the Guama River, where the city of Belem presses up against the vast green Amazon, Brazil is pioneering an economic model at COP30 designed to help locals profit from a healthy rainforest.

Instead of clear-cutting trees for cattle and mines, the state government of Para this year unveiled a research and development program designed to help locals transform forest products like acai and Brazil nuts into goods for global markets.

It is a small part of a big plan for Brazil, as Belem hosts the COP30 international climate summit , to show the world that it can find a way to protect the Amazon rainforest and ensure jobs and money for its residents.

“Our intention is for Para to turn its forest assets into a new strategic sector that transforms our biodiversity into a new

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