Norway, a major donor to the Amazon Fund, said the initiative to promote forest protection was reactivated when Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva returned to office and vowed to halt deforestation.
Norway’s climate and environment minister Espen Barth Eide announcing the revival of a fund to fight deforestation in the Amazon & said “Brazil’s new president has indicated a clear ambition to stop deforestation by 2030, renewed the strategies to achieve this and appointed ministers with considerable knowledge and expertise in this area”.
The fund still holds about 3.4 billion reais ($620 million). It has been frozen since August 2019, when former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro abolished its board and action plans. In 2008, during President Lula’s earlier term, he established a fund to receive international contributions for Brazil’s efforts to stop deforestation. It receives payments only after deforestation is reduced; funds are then spent on more such initiatives.
Norway initially donated $1.2 billion, and Germany also contributed. Among his first decisions after taking office for a new presidential term on Sunday, Lula signed a decree to restore the board of directors of the Amazon Fund with broad representation from civil society and other stakeholders.
He also signed decrees that renewed Brazil’s strategies to reduce Amazon deforestation, the rate of which has jumped to a 15-year high under Bolsonaro. In addition, Lula revoked policies that weakened environmental protections, including measures that encouraged mining in protected indigenous lands.
Barth Eide said “The re-establishment of the fund “is globally significant,”The Amazon Fund gives the international community a great opportunity to contribute”. Britain is considering joining the fund, Environment Minister Therese Coffey told reporter in Brasilia on Monday.
