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00:00 An unsuspected treasure surrounding Rio.
00:03 Underneath these 15,000 hectares of mangroves,
00:06 nearly 7 million tons of CO2 are stored.
00:10 The largest concentration of carbon credits ever calculated,
00:15 thanks to Felipe Chaves and his team.
00:18 Mangroves grow in this region on the shores of lakes.
00:22 Sometimes they advance even further in the water.
00:25 But we're going to stay here to study them.
00:29 Using the latest generation laser,
00:31 the biologist calculates the biomass of each tree from crown to root.
00:36 It's in these sediments that the greatest quantity of carbon is concentrated.
00:41 In the existing market, one tonne of this CO2 is equivalent to five euros of credit.
00:48 The potential is such that it's attracted the attention
00:50 of many of the region's major oil companies in search of redemption.
00:55 Thanks to the work we've done in the mangroves,
00:57 we've been able to calculate very precisely the amount of carbon retained.
01:02 When we look at this mangrove forest and its incredible potential,
01:06 it's obvious that we're exposing it to the risk of it being turned
01:09 into a kind of currency for polluting.
01:11 By turning nature into a carbon credit, we're inserting it into a market logic.
01:16 According to experts, Brazil could generate five billion euros a year in carbon credits,
01:21 not to mention millions of jobs potentially generated
01:24 by forest and wildlife protection projects.
01:27 But how can the financial windfall also be guaranteed to benefit local communities?
01:32 How can it be prevented from becoming a right to pollute?
01:36 In Brasilia, the Secretary for the Green Economy had to play a balancing act
01:41 when drafting the bill.
01:44 It's written that indigenous peoples and traditional communities,
01:47 through their representative authorities, will have a say in the distribution
01:51 of carbon credits sold on their territories.
01:54 Companies emitting more than 25,000 tonnes of carbon per year
01:58 will be regulated by a national control body,
02:00 while those emitting between 10 and 25,000 tonnes will be obliged
02:04 to communicate their annual carbon emissions.
02:06 Those who do not want to follow the rules imposed by the state
02:09 and who don't adapt to the new ways of producing
02:12 will no longer find customers to buy their products.
02:15 They will be out of the market.
02:17 The bill to regulate carbon credits has been approved by Parliament.
02:21 The vote will take place shortly in the Senate.