TED Talks Daily - The brilliance of an economy that protects healthy forests | Ilona Szabó de Carvalho

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

Over the last 40 years, Brazil has lost an area larger than California to deforestation — and 90 percent of the clear-cutting has been illegal, all part of a multi-billion-dollar global environmental crime economy. Civic entrepreneur Ilona Szabó de Carvalho sees this crisis as an opportunity. Revealing how Brazil is pioneering an economic model actually profiting from protecting nature, she shares the ambitious restoration goals and innovations in forest mapping that are turning the country into a "nature superpower." Get a glimpse of what an economy rooted in regeneration, not extraction, could look like.For a chance to give your own TED Talk, fill out the Idea Search Application: ted.com/ideasearch.Interested in learning more about upcoming TED events? Follow these links:TEDNext: ted.com/futureyouTEDSports: ted.com/sportsTEDAI Vienna: ted.com/ai-viennaTEDAI San Francisco: ted.com/ai-sf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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This episode is sponsored by Colgate Periogard. You know, when we get a paper cut or nick a finger while prepping dinner, we don't hesitate to grab a bandage or clean it up right away. But when it comes to our gums, a little tenderness or bleeding when we brush, we tend to ignore it. Why is that? Especially when the fix can be so simple. Use Colgate Periogard to significantly reduce gum bleeding and inflammation.

It helps fight bacteria that can cause early gum disease and improves gum health with daily use. Our mouths are trying to tell us something, and it's worth listening. So next time your gums feel sensitive, don't shrug it off, help take care of it with Colgate Periogard. Healthy gums, Confidence Smile. You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity. every day. I'm your host, Elise Hugh. Forest are nature's superpower and will always be better than cleared land, according to civic entrepreneur Ilona Saboa de Carvayo. In her talk, she shares why nature-aligned economies outperform destructive practices and says it's time for innovative financial

programs to help drive an economic paradigm shift that supports us and our planet. 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 I bring 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, the longest rivers on the planet. 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 the forestation in Brazil is illegal. Treeska down today are connected to illicit economies, like land grabbing, wildlife trafficking, illegal gold mining, and dodge agriculture and ranching practices. These environmental crimes are a big business generating around $280 billion a year in illicit profits globally.

And all of these 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 two 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 basin. 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 recognize 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. 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 poor 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. 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 bioconies that promote nature-based supply chains are sprouting up across Brazil, from food to cosmetics and textiles. And what makes Brazil's approach 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 by economy value chains and jobs.

On the ground, transformation is being led by impact accelerators like a mass 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 matched the largest inventory of forest ever undertaken in Brazil. And they did this in record time, competing in six months a task they say would normally take 25 years. With satellites, drones, and AI, they improve the identification of products, sustainably increasing the yields of harvesters who depend on the forest. They are part of a growing ecosystem of Brazilian entrepreneurs and philanthropies like the Arapiaw Institute

that are connecting harvesters to responsible buyers, from restaurant holdings like Grupo Trigo to bin to bar chocolate makers like Dango. Third, create a new economic sector, focus on nature restoration. To achieve our Paris Agreement's 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 who generate around 140 billion dollars and up to 2.5 million jobs. These are big numbers, 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. Brazil is also pioneering nature finance innovations

to unlock resources. Carbon credits did just the beginning. biodiversity units, payments for ecosystem services, and sustainability-linked bones are also emerging to jump-start nature markets. One compelling idea is Brazil's tropical forest forever facility. The TFF, 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 forests they keep standing or restore. Becoming a nature superpower doesn't happen by chance. It demands bold leadership, investment in the bioeconomy, prioritizing nature restoration, and sustainable financial innovation. For this to happen, we must recognize that forests and nature are worth far more alive, than that. 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. That was

Ilona Saboa de Carvayo at the TED Countdown Summit, Nairobi in Kenya in 2025. If you're curious about TED's curation, find out more at TED.com slash curation guidelines. And that's it for today's show. TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective. This episode was produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanoz, Oliver Friedman, Brian Green, Lucy Little, Alejandra Salazar, and Tonzica Sarmar Nivon. It was mixed by Christopher Faisi Bogan, additional support from Emma Tobner and Daniela Bellarezzo.

I'm Elise Hugh. I'll be back tomorrow with a full. fresh idea for your feed. Thanks for listening. This episode is sponsored by Colgate Perry O'Gard. You know, when we get a paper cut or nick a finger while prepping dinner, we don't hesitate to grab a bandage or clean it up right away. But when it comes to our gums, a little tenderness or bleeding when we brush, we tend to ignore it. Why is that? Especially when the fix can be so simple. Use Colgate Periogard to significantly reduce gum bleeding and inflammation. It helps fight bacteria that can cause early

gum disease and improves gum health with daily use. Our mouths are trying to tell us something and it's worth listening. So next time your gums feel sensitive, don't shrug it off, help take care of it with Colgate periogard, healthy gums, confident smile. this episode is sponsored by Airbnb a few years ago i went to vancouver for work and i remember sneaking in a little time to wander granville island and grab something from the public market it reminded me how much i love discovering new corners of canada with Airbnb because let's be honest when you're traveling with kids sometimes you just need a kitchen at six a m that's one of the things i love about Airbnb you actually get to settle in we can have breakfast together around a table

put the kids to bed in real bedrooms and still stay up with my partner after. That's the kind of setup that makes trips in Canada so much more fun. You're not just getting a place to sleep. You're getting experiences that feel authentically yours, whether it's a lakeside cabin in Bruce Peninsula where you can literally roll out of bed and into a canoe or a cozy spot in Cape Breton where you can make your morning coffee and watch the sunrise without anyone rushing you to check out.

This summer, when you're planning those trips that matter, the ones where you want to actually connect with your loved one, check out some of the most loved homes across Canada on Airbnb. This podcast is brought to you by Wise, the app for international people using money around the globe. With Wise, you can send, spend, and receive up to 40 currencies with only a few simple taps. Plus, Wise won't add hidden fees to your transfer. Whether you're buying souvenirs with pesos and Puerto Vallarta or sending euros to a loved one in Paris, you know you're getting a fair exchange rate with no extra markups. Be smart. Join the 15 million

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