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After a decade of success, Brazil’s internationally-funded rainforest protection program was frozen in 2019 by President Jair Bolsonaro. Now, the nation’s Supreme Court has announced the Amazon Fund will continue operations by 2023.
Fridays are for good news, and luckily, there have been some great developments happening in regard to the Amazon Rainforest.
Following a close win by left-wing presidential candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s Supreme Court has announced that the nation’s largest rainforest protection scheme will be revived.
Named the Amazon Fund, it is a project that allows wealthy nations to fund efforts to halt deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.
The fund was frozen in 2019 when President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration made massive changes to its governance structure. This included the seizure of many projects related to conservation in the Amazon Rainforest.
Bolsonaro’s decision to halt protection measures in the Amazon was based on the argument that commercial farming, mining, and logging were needed to reduce the region’s poverty levels.
The result of this decision led to unchecked pillaging of the Amazon, which the Supreme Court ruled ‘unconstitutional’. In almost five years of the Amazon Fund being frozen, deforestation in Brazil rose by more than 70 percent.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who set up the fund in 2008, has set the goal of reaching ‘zero deforestation,’ starting from his inauguration in January. Despite his fierce ambition, Lula da Silva labelled the job ahead of him ‘immensely challenging.’
It’s Lula, in one of the biggest comebacks in modern political history. Two years ago he was in prison. Now he’ll get a chance to repeat the magic of his 1st presidency in 2000s — but with a much more difficult global economy, and a VERY divided Brazil he won by only about 1 pt
— Brian Winter (@BrazilBrian) October 30, 2022
