RIO DE JANEIRO: Germany has resumed its aid payments for a fund to protect the rainforest in the Amazon region, after a four-year hiatus, reported dpa news.
The German government has released €20 million (US$21 million), the German Embassy in Brasília and the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) announced on Thursday. In addition, the equivalent of around €520,000 was made available for the continuation of technical cooperation.
The so-called Amazon Fund was created in 2008 by the Brazilian government and the BNDES to mobilize additional funds for the protection of the Amazon.
However, Germany froze its payments due to disagreements over the use of the money under the government of then-president Jair Bolsonaro. For the right-wing populist Bolsonaro, the Amazon represented only untapped economic potential.
During Bolsonaro’s term in office from 2019 to 2022, deforestation and slash-and-burn farming increased sharply.
The left-wing politician Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was sworn in as Brazil’s president for the third time on January 1, was not known as an environmentalist in his previous terms in office from the beginning of 2003 to the end of 2010.
But in a speech at the United Nations in September this year, Lula called for a determined fight against climate change and the growing social inequality that it is causing.
At an international Amazon summit in August, Lula said it had “never been more urgent” to preserve the Amazon and that he would prioritise environmental and climate protection.
Germany had already pledged €35 million in January. The €20 million that will be disbursed through the German development bank KfW is the first instalment of this amount.
Germany is the second largest donor after Norway and has already contributed around €55 million to the fund. The Amazon rainforest is considered a CO2 reservoir and has an important function in the international fight against climate change.-Bernama
