After Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s (PT) victory in the Brazilian Presidential dispute, Germany has signaled that it plans to open up funds for the Amazon Fund this Tuesday (11/01).

Transfers to the forest conservation fund, financed by Germany and especially Norway, were suspended by both countries in 2019 after deforestation in the Amazon increased and the government of President Jair Bolsonaro was accused of failing to act to contain the outbreak. .

After Norway announced on Monday that it would reactivate the Amazon Fund, Jochen Flasbarth, Minister of Foreign Affairs at the German Ministry of Cooperation and Development, said it was willing to get to Brazil quickly again.

As early as Monday, the secretary reacted on Twitter to the news that Norway will continue to cooperate with Brasilia. “Germany will do the same. The Ministry of Cooperation and Development is ready to rejoin Brazil with our Norwegian colleagues to support the Amazon Fund. The Amazon rainforest is crucial to ensuring sustainability. [a meta de] 1.5°C is achievable!” he wrote, referring to the global warming limit set as a target in the Paris Agreement.

The suspension of transfers worth approximately 35 million euros was announced in 2019 by Svenja Schulze, the German Minister of Environment and the current Minister of Cooperation and Development.

In congratulating Lula on his victory, German Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz openly spoke about the prospect of cooperation on climate protection.

Background plans for the future. Germany and Norway suspended transfers to the Amazon Fund after the Bolsonaro government unilaterally dissolved the two committees responsible for fund management and broke the agreement between the countries that set the rules for the project. The funds were managed by a team set up to fulfill this task within BNDES and should be used by Brazil to prevent, monitor and combat deforestation.

The then Environment Minister, Ricardo Salles, was critical of the fund’s management at the time and made accusations of general misconduct in NGOs Norway denied. Salles also wanted to use some of the funds to compensate landowners living in areas included in Amazonian conservation units that are not permitted today.

Marcio Astrini, secretary-general of the Climate Observatory, which represents 65 environmental civil society organizations in Brazil, said that if the Amazon Fund were relaunched, the funds could be used to restore environmental governance structures that were weakened during Bolsonaro’s administration.

For example, “the money should be used to fund local and federal law enforcement field operations to combat environmental crimes such as illegal mining and logging,” Astrini said.

Anders Haug Larsen, head of public policy at the Rainforest Foundation Norway, later said that resource transfers to the fund must be re-linked to the results offered by Brazil in the fight against deforestation to serve as an incentive to protect the Amazon. .