Nature conservation in Latin America has an annual deficit of 153 billion dollars

Latin America and the Caribbean need to invest around US$170 billion per year (approximately R$910.44 billion) to conserve biodiversity, according to Times Brasil. The difference between this volume and what the region uses today is an annual deficit of US$153 billion (around R$818.89 billion).

Today, investment in conservation in the region is around US$17 billion per year, equivalent to R$91.04 billion. In other words, what is applied covers a small fraction of what the estimates consider necessary.

The deficit corresponds to 2.1% of regional GDP, which shifts the discussion from the environmental field to the budgetary field. The numbers are contained in a report that brings together estimates from the IDB and ECLAC.

The study was presented at COP17 of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, in Yereván, Armenia. The report does not detail who should finance the difference, and this gap is the point that weighs most on those who follow public accounts. A large-scale agenda without clear sources and priorities tends to come up against the fiscal responsibility that the region needs to preserve.

What changes for the investor

The number, by itself, does not indicate an investment decision, and the facts found do not associate the deficit with specific assets. The effect for those who operate the stock exchange, interest and exchange rates is, for now, indirect: if the financing comes from the budget or public debt, the pressure on the accounts of the countries in the region may appear in fiscal expectations and the risk perceived by the market. On the other hand, a demand for conservation projects can open up space for companies and funds linked to environmental issues, but this effect depends on rules, priorities and resources that are not yet defined. It is worth monitoring how each government intends to finance the account before drawing conclusions about price behavior.

Automatically translated from Portuguese.