Brazil’s Combu Island Shows How Chocolate Can Drive Climate Action

Ilha do Combu, one of the 42 islands in Guamá River the surrounding Belém, Brazil.

Combu Island – Ilha do Combu in Portuguese – rises like a wall of living green from Brazil’s Guamá River. It is a testament to centuries of shared existence between the forest and its riverside communities. Here, cupuaçu, taperebá, pupunha, araçá and cacao are more than fruits; they are threads in the fabric of local culture, livelihoods and identity.

But this lush harmony carries a warning: if negotiators at COP30 hope to protect the world’s forests, they must first safeguard the people who sustain them.

Chocolate, community and a vision for the future

Just 30 minutes by boat from Belém – known as the “gateway to the Amazon” and host city of this year’s UN climate conference – Combu is home to the Filha do Combu Association, created by Izete Costa, known affectionately as Dona Nena. Her initiative demonstrates how community-led solutions can fuel global climate action.

What began as a modest effort to turn traditional knowledge into income has grown into a thriving enterprise. Starting with small-scale chocolate production using Amazonian cacao, Dona Nena sold at local fairs before completing professional training to expand her business.

Today, she runs a small factory and a tourism programme that invites visitors to see how chocolate is made in the rainforest. Of the 20 workers employed there, 16 are women.

The production system is agroecological: native species work together to strengthen yields. Rows of banana trees, for example, are planted to attract pollinating bees essential to cacao.

“I usually enrich the forest with what’s working well, because here we didn’t cut down the forest to plant trees,” Dona Nena told us. “We work with the forest standing, and we look for and plant trees where there’s a natural decline.”

Solar power and scaling up

The chocolate factory – whose products are sold across Brazil – runs eight hours a day on solar energy. But power outages remain a challenge. When a fallen tree cuts the electricity supply, machines can sit idle for days. Dona Nena hopes to double solar capacity to prevent damage and keep production steady.

Combu is also experiencing the effects of climate change. Recently, cacao harvests have shrunk; fruits and trees are drying, shrinking and deforming. And the fear of losing access to drinking water grows by the day. Despite the rainy season, not a single drop has fallen on Combu in more than 15 days, Dona Nena says.

From local solutions to global action

This was the setting for Annalena Baerbock’s visit on Sunday, her second trip to Combu after first meeting Dona Nena as Germany’s Foreign Minister.

Upon arriving, Ms Baerbock told UN News she was glad to see the project thriving, generating “production chains … in the heart of regional communities [so] the benefits [can stay here] for the indigenous, for the local people.”

For her, the initiative is proof that real solutions already exist – solutions that unite economic growth, sustainable development and the fight against the climate crisis. She stressed that connecting these models at scale is essential to keeping global warming below 2°C, ideally at 1.5°C.

“Forest destruction is the destruction of humanity’s life insurance,” she warned, adding: “COP30 has to be a COP where we show that, even in challenging geopolitical times, the vast majority of countries, people and economic actors are joining hands to tackle the climate crisis and deliver sustainable growth for all.”

Lessons from the forest

After sampling Amazonian fruits and several chocolate recipes prepared on site, Dona Nena led Ms Baerbock on a trail through the forest, where the two had met a group of women producers two years earlier.

They discussed the project’s emphasis on empowering the women who sell their products through the Filha do Combu Association. Dona Nena highlighted that the women bring a unique energy of care and dedication that shapes the quality of the chocolate.

Along the trail, the forest offered its own symbolism. Together, they observed a taperebá tree slowly dying under the grip of a parasitic vine. Once the tree dies, the vine will die too, deprived of its source of nutrients. Ms Baerbock reflected that this was a diplomatic metaphor, even linked to the emissions devastating the planet.

But the forest also offered hope. They paused before a sumaúma, a giant of the Amazon thought to be more than 280 years old. These trees can reach 70 metres and have witnessed centuries of history – and could witness centuries more, if COP30 succeeds.

UN News is reporting from Belém, bringing you front-row coverage of developments at COP30.