it's really hard. we are observing humanity walking faster to the collapse. tackling coastal erosion - villagers in belize are trying to keep an entire ocean at bay resisting the flames - new construction methods aim to prevent fire damage in cape town's townships. and: combatting deforestation - can brazil stop the destruction of its rainforest?

what if i told you the country responsible for this was once great at fighting deforestation? in recent years, one man has become synonymous with destruction in the brazilian amazon: former president jair bolsonaro. his lax policies allowed swaths of rainforest to be razed to the ground. during the last four years, the amazon was a place without law. but it wasn't always this bad. in fact, brazil was once good at protecting its forests. the country previously reduced deforestation in the amazon by 80 % over the course of eight years. this downward trend started in the early 2000 s under president luiz inácio lula da silva. most just know him as lula. and now. bolsonaro is out and lula is back.

but brazil has changed dramatically in the last decades. so, will the country be able to combat deforestation again? here's the thing. what brazilian politicians decide to do with their part of the amazon concerns us all. even if bolsonaro says: “the amazon is ours, not yours. ” of course the most affected are the millions of people living there. and the hundreds of thousands of plant and animal species. but the amazon also plays a vital role in absorbing enormous amounts of co 2. that keeps the gas from heating the atmosphere and making scenes like these more and more common around the world. it's a buffer for climate change. but deforesting amazon, we are destroying our buffer. that is accelerating the climate change, the extreme events. this is luciana gatschi, , a senior researcher with brazil's national institute for space research.

she found that the amazon has been destroyed to such an extent that it's now emitting more carbon than it takes in. that's partly because the fires used to clear the forest release tons of it. if we don't stop it immediately, this process, we will lose this part of amazon forest. it will become the tipping point. oof, okay, that sounds depressing. i promise we're getting to the solutions. but first we need to understand what has allowed us to deforest 17% of the brazilian amazon. here's a clue. it's a moneymaker. and this goes all the way back to the 1970 s. at that point the rainforest was largely untouched. but the military regime that was in power pursued an agenda of nationalism and economic development. it decided exploiting its biggest forest was the way to boost brazil's economy. the military in brazil saw the region as a region to be conquered. ilona szabó is the president of instituto igarapé, a think tank

specializing in climate and security issues. the government was paying for people to go to the amazon and basically said whatever you can deforest will be yours. the regime did this to convince people to settle in a forest it considered to be uninhabited - though of course there were indigenous communities there. it built a massive highway to make it easier to navigate across the amazon. and incentivized brazilians to move there to log for timber and raise cattle. over the coming decades, these businesses proved to be very lucrative. especially because more and more people were eating meat around the world. and farmers needed lots of protein-rich soy to feed their livestock. so the rainforest had to continue making space for cattle pastures and soy fields. and as laws became stricter, land clearing also happened illegally. but then, in 2003, came a turning point. lula took office as president at a time when deforestation was soaring.

he appointed a minister, marina silva, who really put the rainforest on the agenda - with immense success. from 2004 to 2012, deforestation in the amazon went down by 80 %. there are three major components that made this happen. first: a massive expansion of protected areas the administration added millions of hectares to be preserved. by 2010 more than 40 % of the amazon was officially under protection. these areas include conservation units and indigenous territories. designating new indigenous territories was especially important because they've been shown to conserve the forest very successfully. indigenous communities have been managing these territories for centuries. this is adriana ramos. she coordinates the ngo instituto socioambiental, which focuses on environmental and indigenous rights. so the way indigenous people in other traditional communities deal with the forest is what makes the forest important for us. in general, all the new protections worked as a huge deterrent.

because once you have a protected area, the expectation that one will make money with that land will end. but that didn't mean people could deforest all they wanted in unprotected areas. here, landowners could only farm on 20 % of their territories. and to ensure this, the government ramped up its monitoring. it improved its satellite system to detect deforestation in real time. and it gave better training to environmental authorities and law enforcement to crack down on illegal activities. the final step was to tackle the supply chains. this only became a talking point due to pressure from civil society. greenpeace had published studies linking deforestation in the amazon to soy and beef bought by major food companies. the public outcry paid off. it resulted in the soy moratorium and the beef moratorium: voluntary agreements between big food producers to stop buying these goods from newly deforested areas. the soy moratorium was especially successful.

it's estimated to have saved 18,000 square kilometers of forest over a decade. you might wonder: how did this affect the economy in the amazon? well, it still kept growing. agricultural production actually went up as deforestation decreased. that's because farmers were not using their land efficiently before, and pastures often remained empty. soon, they were forced to plant crops in some of these underused pastures. and stock more cattle on them. if this all sounds too good to be true, it's because it was. around 2013 deforestation rates started climbing again. during a time of political turmoil, conservative allies of the agribusiness had pushed to weaken the laws protecting forests. and big infrastructure projects were creeping into the amazon, too. like this hydroelectric dam approved by none other than lula. he said it was necessary for brazil's energy supply. but it was in 2019 that things really started looking bad for the rainforest.

jair bolsonaro took office. and his far-right platform included lots of anti-environment rhetoric. oh, those environmental people. if i can, i will confine them to the amazon one day since they like the environment so much. remember the paradigm from the 1970 s that deforesting was key to boosting the economy? it came back. bolsonaro publicly pushed for more mining in indigenous territories. and his administration weakened the environmental enforcement agencies, shrinking their budgets and pushing out staff. this created a climate of impunity. that really opened the space for the consolidation of the criminal activities that were already there, but then that were coupled with much more organized criminal networks, much more resources from other illicit economies. the illegal destruction of the amazon increasingly became part of sophisticated networks trafficking drugs, guns and laundering money. as a result, deforestation rates soared over the next four years. it's really hard.

we are observing humanity walking faster to the collapse. but bolsonaro was not reelected. lula beat him with a razor-thin margin in 2022. and one of the first things he did was go to the un climate talks and announce: brazil is back. he immediately sent more law enforcement into the field to stop loggers and land grabbers. in january 2023, deforestation was already down 61 % on the same month the year before. but that doesn't mean it will be an easy path. brazil has changed a lot since lula first took office 20 years ago. it's a different country. no doubt about it. this is eduardo viola from the university of são paulo. he's referring to a set of new challenges. like rebuilding all the institutions bolsonaro's administration dismantled. the description of the people that are taking office is that they found what is unthinkable in terms of the lack of information, of

the history of what happened, the level of public servants that asked to leave. the good news is that lula's former environment minister has agreedto come back. but now her ministry will face a rainforest eroded beyond recognition. filled with sprawling criminal networks and illegal landing strips for their planes. another hurdle will be to counter the powerful agribusiness lobby. while lula won the presidency, he doesn't necessarily have congress on his side. these forces in favor of illegal activity in the amazon are much more strong politically at the local level and the state level than they were 20 years ago. we have seen in the past that they're capable of getting laws weakened. and the industry will continue having this political influence as long as it profits off the rocket-high demand for brazilian agriculture. the world is eating amazon as beef, as a soybean, as a corn.

people, please stop buying this from the amazon. help us! these challenges are real and they are significant. but lula's administration also faces a set of opportunities. the opportunity to improve land productivity and farm more efficiently. to boost green economies that use the region's resources without depleting them - or cutting down trees. that includes commercializing more products native to the forest and eco tourism. brazil can also share its knowledge and successes with other forest giants like indonesia or the democratic republic of congo. i hope we go back to the world scene not only as a green power, but as a generous one that will bring others along. this step is crucial because we may not be able to put a price tag on saving our rainforests. but we will pay the price if we don't.

the global sea level is rising inexorably. in the 20 th century, it rose by a total of around 15 centimeters. since then, the rate has almost tripled - due to melting polar ice sheets and the expansion of warmer sea water. for many coastal dwellers the question is becoming ever more urgent: what to do when the water comes? this is a home for us. this is where we have been born, we have grown up. there's no place like this for us as a community; we are not we are not ready to move. monkey river has always been a fishing community. i mean, i started out as a fisherman. and that was a joyful time. monkey river is in a very dangerous place right now.

i mean, it's on the point where people are moving away because of this erosion. we were living out there where the water is now. the house washed away from there. my name is mario muschamp. i'm a resident of the community of monkey river. we started seeing issues with the erosion on the coastline. what hurts me the most about this whole situation is -- even after we lost several, you know, pieces of properties, we lost the whole football field -- was the loss of our burial ground. my grandma and my grandfather are now washed out in the sea. you know, their graves are gone. that really hurts. we have been doing our best to try and keep what we have.

i don't want to see any more graves go to the sea. as a lot of my family are still there. my sister, aunts and uncles, cousins, good friends are still there -- currently threatened by the sea. my mom is, well she's the reason i decided to become a teacher. ready for school? well, everybody around here, we're related family members. so it's really personal. so that is why i chose, well, i decided to get on the watershed and see what i could do to assist. the monkey river watershed association was mainly formed to address what we are seeing with the erosion on the coastline. as a community, what we started seeing were changes on the river.

and we didn't see the kind of sand that used to come out before toreplenish what is lost naturally. we have no beach now, but it was. . . it was really nice having a beach where you can walk around and enjoy the view of the sun rising. my call is to try and see what i can do. to improve. to better manage what we have. because it's easier to manage what you have than to restore what you lost. so i had to get involved with the watershed association.

in 2017, we were able to implement our first project, the pilot for the stabilization of the coastline using the geotubes. the watershed did a geotube projekt where they installed some geotubes in front of the village. basically that was like a stabilization method to assist with some of the villagers who were at risk of losing their homes. the gef small grants programme provides financial and technical resources to civil society organizations to implement community driven action for global impact. i was able to nurture further relationships with the residents

of monkey river, including understanding their plight, their concerns with the erosion, the loss of homes, the loss of their livelihoods, the loss of biodiversity. the degradation of watershed in general is at an alarming rate being degraded. and for me that is extremely concerning. what i see with the erosion, i would hope that they can stabilize it. put something down -- rocks, sand -- to stabilize the beach. once it's stabilized, then they can do other projects to help that. waves and sand was coming inside the downstairs and run through all the way to the back. so what happened? the guys took some rocks that the government gave us, some boulders, and small ones and they put them just in the wheelbarrow

and boat and throw them in front to help to build back a little bit of the sand. so we know that the boulders would work. monkey river village is one of those coastal communities that we prioritize. a coastal fishing community located in the southern eastern part of belize. a small creole community living in harmony with nature. monkey river is not responsible for the climate crisis, yet they are the ones that are suffering the greatest loss and damage. what we need is climate justice. i want to get monkey river back on the map. monkey river exists, it's a beautiful place. the natural resources are here for us to use, not abuse and misuse. because without them we can't exist.

if we can address what we are seeing, monkey river can be here for another hundred years. ever drier - ever warmer - ever more fires. often it's the very poorest who suffer the most - like residents of informal settlements. the township of masiphumelele near cape town has 30,000 residents spread across nearly 40 hectares. nozuko loliwe is sorting through the wreckage of her home. two weeks ago a fire destroyed 178 shacks here - homes made of corrugated metal on a wooden frame. "i ran out with nothing. the only thing i have left are my pyjamas. my neighbor died in the fire. " one of her friends filmed the inferno.

fires like these are happening more frequently. as the population grows, people are living closer together. and heatwaves are also more common because of climate change. dozens of homes also burned down recently in cape town's biggest township, kayelitsha. and not for the first time. architect gloria pavita and her team from the ngo ikhayalami are rebuilding the houses. the new ones are affordable - and more durable. "we're here to implement our zinc-aluminum structure which is fire retardant, theft retardant and flood retardant to prevent other fires. " this one survived the latest fire without a trace. the sheet metal they're using is thicker, so fires can't spread as easily from home to home. ikhayalami is funded through donations. it's already built 3500 of these new models. in the xhosa language, ikhayalami means "my home".

the ngo wants to help people live in safety and dignity. cedric may's old corrugated iron hut was replaced a year ago. "i'd like to see how things are going. " "yeah everything is okay. and you can see the place, i am very happy about this. this is what we got here. this is very beautiful. this is our shower. fanstastic. very soon we are going to put tiles in. " oh, i can't wait. "we had a one-room place, a one shack room. and you know that thing was almost falling down when the wind came. oh and i had headaches and all that, and all the rain came through. that was at that time. but now i live in a beautiful place like this, i can only say thanks to god. " cedric may works as a caddie on a golf course.

his employer agreed to help finance the construction cost of around 1000 euros together with ikhayalami. this kind of co-financing is the basis of ikayalami's funding model. "we pre-finance as much as we can of the build. and the employers meet us half way. and sometimes employees also parktake in that. perhaps the employer can pay up front and then the employees pay back the employer at a rate that's suitable to their relationship and their financial reality. " the golf course paid back their interest-free loan within a year. ikayalami's housing initiative is part of the project bayit collaboration. it helps employers provide their workers with a better home for the equivalent of about 70 euros a month. there's a huge demand. informal settlements will dominate africa's cities in the near future. they're already home to one in five cape town residents. joel bolnick is a urban development advisor.

he says fire-resistant homes can quickly improve living conditions in townships in times of climate change. "summers are hotter, the winds are significantly more ferocious cape town has always had heavy winds but now they're more sustained and more unpredicatable and often much more volatile. and even the in-migration of people moving from the rural areas into the cities is pushed by the fact that sustainability and survivability in the rural areas is being profoundly impacted by the changes in climate. " ikhayalami isn't only making homes fire resistant. together with the urban-think tank from eth zurich, the ngo has replaced an entire informal settlement with two-storey homes. the empower shack pilot project has already built more than 70 units the last ones will be handed over to their new owners today.

cape town's deputy mayor has arrived. the city council wants to officially honor the new homes and their owners. "these small features are really important. it makes the home. it makes people taking pride in their asset. " "currently we have a population sitting at about 4.8 million people. the data suggests that we will surpass or come close to six million people by the end of this decade. we need to plan differently, we need to de-densify and we need to secure partnerships to respond to the housing needs. i think that's a good place to start. " in an emergency, this street provides access for fire trucks and ambulances. where corrugated iron huts once stood cramped together, there are now children playing. the project also plans to provide solar power for the neighborhood. "we're looking at three megawatts of solar energy

production in ikwezi park alone. and we see the potential for i think it's about two gigawatts of renewable energy production in khayelitsha. " initiatives like empower shack and ikhayalami are still too scarce in south africa, where they're desperately needed. people like nozuko loliwe can't wait for years for a safe place to live. "i'm devastated. that was my first fire and i haven't been sleeping well since. my neighbors say there's a big fire every summer, it's become normal here. " in the last three years, fires in cape town's informal settlements have nearly doubled to 5000 a year. in masiphumelele they're worried that if summers keep getting hotter, this is just the beginning.

anchor: this is dw news live from berlin. president biden in india for the g 20 summit. leaders of china and russia skipping the meeting and biden expected to lobby other countries for more solidarity on climate change and the war in ukraine. also tonight, ahead of elections in russia this weekend, you will meet a young russian campaigning against apathy and disillusionment with politics.