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International fund launched to save Amazon
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has launched an international fund to finance conservation and sustainable development in the Amazon as deforestation rates rise.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:09 August 3, 2008
- Brazil has, for some time, urged industrialised nations to help pay for the conservation of the Amazon.
- Image Credit: Reuters
Rio de Janeiro/Brasilia: Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has launched an international fund to finance conservation and sustainable development in the Amazon as deforestation rates rise.
The fund will support forest conservation, scientific research and sustainable development projects, such as rubber tapping, forestry management or developing drugs from plants.
"We are conscious of what the Amazon represents for the world," Lula said during an inauguration ceremony in Rio de Janeiro. "It's better for the country's image to do things right, so we can walk in international forums with our heads high," Lula said.
The government hopes to raise $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) within a year and as much as $21 billion by 2021, according to Brazil's National Development Bank (BNDES), which will manage the fund.
It is open to companies, countries and nongovernmental organisations.
In September, Norway will make the first donation - $100 million - said Eduardo Bandeira de Mello, head of Environment and Social Responsibilities at BNDES.
Brazil has for some time urged industrialised nations to help pay for the conservation of the Amazon. Not chopping down trees had a cost, especially to millions of people living in the Amazon, Lula told visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in May.
But Brazil would not accept foreign meddling in its Amazon policies, Roberto Mangabeira Unger, minister for strategic affairs, said in an interview in Brasilia.
"The fund is a vehicle by which foreign governments can help support our initiatives without exerting any influence over our national policy," Unger said. "We are not going to trade sovereignty for money."
In the 12 months through July, deforestation will have totalled around 13,000 sq km, the government estimates. Last year 11,224 sq km were destroyed, down from a peak of 27,379 sq km in 2004.
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