Norway threatens to stop financing conservation of the Amazon
The European country has stated that they will cut their financial aid to zero if Brazil does not reduce deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.
Norway is one of the main financial contributors of programs promoting the conservation of the amazon basin in Brazil. Increasing deforestation rates provoked a halving in the financial aid during 2017. According to the Environment and Climate Minister of Norway, Vidar Helgesen, “during 2016, almost 8,000 km2 of jungle – the equivalent of the surface of Mexico City – disappeared due to livestock and agricultural activity”.
For several years, the Norwegian government has diverted about 1 billion krones annually (about $118 million dollars). However, during 2015, deforestation augmented 24% and the following year, 29%. These rates forced the European government to reduce the financial aid in 2016 by 850 million krones. For this year, Helgesen warned, they will further reduce the monetary help.
According to the journalist Mike Gawareki, Brazil’s president, Michel Temer, has proposed a new legislation that would reduce protection of forested land favoring the interest of the agricultural lobbyists. In the past, the same campaigners extended their support to the now president during his political campaign.
Several environmental and social leaders have united against Temer’s political decisions which not only affect directly the forest but also the human rights of indigenous communities. According to Sonia Guajajara, an indigenous leader from Brazil, “Temer violates his obligations and undermines people’s constitutional rights”. To this, she added: “His attacks on indigenous people and the environment are of a magnitude we have not seen before”.
LatinAmerican Post | Laura Iguavita
Copy edited by Susana Cicchetto
