Media Advisory

Brazzaville, Congo (October 2023) — Members of the media are invited to join a digital press briefing event:

The tropical forest tipping point: Press briefing on fossil fuel and extractive threats to tropical forests and climate in advance of the Summit of the Three Basins

Click to Register for the Event

• Virtual Press Conference on Zoom
• Date: Tuesday, October 24th, 2023
• Time: 9:00 – 10:00 Eastern Time // 14:00 – 15:00 West Africa Standard Time //
  20:00 – 21:00 Western Indonesia Time
• Languages: English, with interpretation to French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Bahasa Indonesia

The press briefing event will feature:

• An introduction to the state of the science including potential impacts of climate change on the ecosystems and tropical forests of the three basins and the danger of passing tipping points, if global emissions are not rapidly reduced
• Launch of a new threat report “Three Basins Threat Report: Fossil Fuel, Mining, and Industrial Expansion Threats to Forests and Communities” by Earth Insight and co-publisher partners
• Perspectives from Indigenous and civil society leaders from each of the three basins and a call to take bold action to prevent fossil fuel and industrial expansion in some of Earth’s largest remaining tropical forests, and put Indigenous peoples and local communities at the forefront of the Summit and the work that follows.

Event Summary

The highest forest loss is happening in the countries with the world’s largest and most significant tropical rainforests, already being threatened by climate change. A new report launched at this press briefing will show for the first time the scope of threats from fossil fuel expansion in all three forest basins — the Amazon, Congo and Southeast Asia — and also introduce the range of other threats, from mining to logging, that are pushing these places towards a threshold of systemic ecosystem breakdown that imperils global climate stability, biodiversity, and the livelihoods of millions of Indigenous peoples and local communities. 

This briefing will also feature the perspectives of scientists and Indigenous and community leaders, and calls to action to halt fossil fuel expansion, and put Indigenous and community rights at the centre of the Three Basins initiative.

The Summit will take place later in the week, bringing together Heads of State, Official Delegations, Government Representatives, International Institutions, Donors, Financing Organizations, and Experts, with the aim of strengthening South-South governance for the three regulatory ecosystems: Amazon, Congo, Borneo-Mekong and Southeast Asia.