The Scandinavian country’s Minister of Environment and Climate has said Norway is ready to resume transfers to Brazil in the event of a government change in the October election, as polls suggest, to prevent deforestation in the Amazon.
Brazilians will vote to elect a new president this year, and former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva noted a 16 percentage point advantage over current president Jair Bolsonaro in a Genial/Quaest poll released June 8, pointing to a possible victory. for PT in the first round.
Between 2008 and 2018, Norway donated US$1.2 billion to the Amazon Fund, which pays Brazil to prevent, monitor and combat deforestation and has the government of Oslo as its largest donor. During the said period, deforestation rates slowed down.
However, funding was frozen after the Bolsonaro government, which came to power in 2019, weakened environmental protection, and justified that rural activities and mining in the Amazon region had reduced poverty, resulting in increased destruction of the largest rainforests on the planet.
“We have high hopes of continuing a good and active partnership very quickly, if as research shows and a change happens in Brazil,” said Espen Barth Eide, Norwegian Minister of Climate and Environment. Interview with Reuters.
“What they said in the opposition is very positive,” he said, adding that work on the fund could be resumed “very quickly”, within “weeks or months”. He says he will do it”.
Brazil’s Ministry of the Environment did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Former minister Ricardo Salles, who is skeptical about climate change, criticized Amazon Fund management in 2019 and made general allegations about irregularities in awards given to non-governmental organizations.
Norway dismissed the criticism, saying it was happy with the management of the funds at the time.
According to NGOs, Amazon Fund currently has 3 billion reals.
Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, which represents 65 environmental NGOs in Brazil, says that when restarted, the fund should be used to re-establish environmental governance that was abolished by Bolsonaro.
For example, the money “should be used by local and federal police to fund field operations to combat environmental crimes” such as mining and illegal logging.
Anders Haug Larsen, policy director for the Norwegian Rainforest Foundation, later said payments to the fund should be based on Brazil’s performance to stop deforestation slowing and create incentives to protect the Amazon.
source: Noticias
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