Amazon rainforest fund revived again in light of Lula's win in Brazil
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Following the leftist president's past victory, deforestation witnessed a cut by more than 70%.
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Deforestation in the Amazon (Reuters)
A win for the environment has been celebrated after Brazil's supreme court ruled on Thursday to reactivate the Amazon Fund against deforestation, which was put on hold in 2019 when far-right president Jair Bolsonaro shut down two of its key committees, citing "irregularities".
Authorities were demanded to reactivate it within 60 days, allowing the country's state development bank to start using the more than 3 billion reais, or $593 million. The court ruling called Bolsonaro's decision unconstitutional.
Tasso Azevedo, an architect at the Amazon Fund and technical coordinator for the Climate Observatory, a Brazilian NGO, said: “The Amazon Fund is the biggest fund for the protection of forests ever created,”
He added: “The losses through its paralysis over these (almost) four years are irreplaceable but its reactivation is more than urgent and enables us to start protecting the forest, promote sustainable development, and fight deforestation again.”
New president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who set up the fund in 2008 and who beat opponent Bolsonaro in the election on October 30, vowed to bring back policies meant to protect the environment that were halted by Bolsonaro.
"The challenge is immense," he said of the job ahead of him, citing a hunger crisis, the economy, bitter political division, and deforestation in the Amazon.
Germany reinstates donations after Lula win
During Lula's first eight years as president, deforestation witnessed a cut by more than 70%, and in light of his latest victory last week, he announced the goal of zero deforestation to go into effect after his scheduled inauguration on January 1.
This comes after deforestation has been annually increasing since Bolsonaro was in power and after it hit a 15-year high this year due to illegal logging and land grabs. Bolsonaro, with his far-right and business-focused policies, called on people to take advantage of Brazil's natural resources.
After Bolsonaro neutralized the fund, Norway - which had donated a whopping 94% - and Germany withdrew their support, but after the recent court ruling, which Germany’s ambassador to Brazil, Heiko Thoms recognized, the European nation confirmed its intent to donate again.
Brazil’s Federal Controller General released a report in June showing that Bolsonaro’s decision cost the Amazon fund billions in lost opportunities.
Referring to previous governments, Germany's ambassador said: "Brazil achieved impressive results in reducing deforestation in Amazonia and it can do the same again in the future.” However, environment minister Carlos Minc expressed: “It’s not sufficient, because we need to reduce deforestation," adding: "but this government is ending and I hope the next one retakes the original principles.”
What's more shocking, is that rights group Global Witness published a report in September exposing that some of the world’s biggest central banks - among them The Bank of England, the US Federal Reserve, and the European Central Bank - are destroying the Brazilian Amazon by financing agri-business giants.
Before Jair Bolsonaro’s term began in January 2019, the Brazilian Amazon hadn’t recorded a single year with more than 10,000 square kilometers of deforestation in over a decade. Between 2009 and 2018, the average was 6,500 square kilometers. Since then, the annual average leaped to 11,405 square kilometers, and the three-year total is an area bigger than the state of Maryland.
