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Brazil proposes global forest conservation fund at COP28
  + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +2 min
Smoke from a fire rises into the air as trees burn amongst vegetation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest near Humaita, Amazonas state, Brazil, August 3, 2023. REUTERS/Leonardo Benassatto/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsDUBAI, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Brazil on Friday unveiled a proposal at the COP28 climate summit to set up a global fund to finance forest conservation that it hopes can raise $250 billion from sovereign wealth funds and other investors, including the oil industry. The plan unveiled by Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva and Finance Minister Fernando Haddad calls for the creation of an innovative global instrument to remunerate the maintenance and restoration of tropical forests. Brazil is asking other countries to contribute to the final design of the fund. The funds would be deposited at a global organization, which could raise further resources by issuing low-risk bonds.
Persons: Leonardo Benassatto, Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva, Fernando Haddad, Andre Correa, Lago, deforest, Lisandra Paraguassu, William Maclean Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Brazilian Environment Minister, Finance, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Humaita, Amazonas, Brazil, Dubai
Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil fell to a five-year low, the country’s National Institute of Space Research announced on Thursday, a sign that Brazil, which has the biggest share of tropical forest in the world, was making progress on its pledge to halt all deforestation by the end of the decade. The decline in tree loss is estimated to have reduced the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by 7.5 percent. “Behind this was a political decision,” Marina Silva, Brazil’s environment minister, said on Thursday at a news conference. “We are changing the image of the country when we change this reality.”The announcement was an encouraging sign that local policies could change the trajectory of global forest loss. The world lost 10.2 million acres of primary forest in 2022, a 10 percent increase from the year before, according to an annual survey by the World Resources Institute.
Persons: ” Marina Silva Organizations: National Institute of Space Research, World Resources Institute Locations: Brazil
Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon falls 57% in September
  + stars: | 2023-10-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +1 min
REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsCompanies Amazon Fund II LP FollowSAO PAULO, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest fell 56.8% in September compared to a year earlier, government data showed on Friday, while the region is struggling with a historic drought. In September, Brazil's Environment Minister Marina Silva announced at the United Nations Summit in New York more ambitious climate targets for the country. Deforestation and fires usually spike in the Amazon in August and September, when the weather turns drier. Fires in the region last month fell 36%, improving from the worst September in more than a decade in 2022. Last month, Switzerland and the United States donated $8.4 million to Brazil's Amazon Fund to help preserve the world's largest tropical rainforest.
Persons: Ueslei Marcelino, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's, Jair, Marina Silva, Peter Frontini, Diane Craft Organizations: REUTERS, Amazon Fund, SAO PAULO, Brazil's, United Nations Summit, Thomson Locations: Seca, Uruara, Para State, Brazil, New York, Switzerland, United States
Low river levels and hotter waters have killed masses of fish seen floating on river surfaces, contaminating the drinking water, she said. The civil defense agency warned that the drought could eventually impact up to 500,000 people in the Amazon. The drought in the Amazon, like the flooding in the south of Brazil, results from the El Niño phenomenon, which warms the surface water in the Pacific Ocean. Silva said this was the effect of a periodic El Niño mixing with changes in weather patterns brought by global warming. Worsened by climate change, this combination has caused drought not seen before in the Amazon and "is incomparably stronger and could happen more frequently," she added.
Persons: Bruno Kelly, Marina Silva, Silva, Lisandra Paraguassu, Anthony Boadle, Alistair Bell, Jamie Freed Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Environment, Reuters, Air Force, Thomson Locations: Manacapuru, Amazonas, Brazil, Rights BRASILIA, Port, Manaus, Rio, Acre
BRASILIA, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Brazil's government is preparing a task force to provide emergency assistance to inhabitants in the Amazon region hit by a severe drought that has impacted the rivers that are their life support, Environment Minister Marina Silva said. Low river levels and hotter waters have killed masses of fish seen floating on river surfaces, contaminating the drinking water, she said. The drought in the Amazon, like the flooding in the south of Brazil, results from the El Niño phenomenon, which warms the surface water in the Pacific Ocean. Silva said this was the effect of a periodic El Niño mixing with changes in weather patterns brought by global warming. Worsened by climate change, this combination has caused drought not seen before in the Amazon and "is incomparably stronger and could happen more frequently," she added.
Persons: Marina Silva, Bruno Kelly, Silva, Lisandra Paraguassu, Anthony Boadle, Alistair Bell, Jamie Freed Organizations: Environment, Reuters, REUTERS, Air Force, Thomson Locations: BRASILIA, Port, Manaus, Rio, Manacapuru, Amazonas, Brazil, Acre
Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon falls 66% in August
  + stars: | 2023-09-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +3 min
In the first eight months of the year, INPE's figures showed, deforestation has fallen a cumulative 48% from the same period of 2022. Brazil last month hosted a major rainforest summit, where eight Amazon nations agreed to a list of unified environmental policies and measures to bolster regional cooperation but failed to agree on a common goal for ending deforestation. "We are experiencing a new moment, with more assertive policies and greater political will in favor of the Amazon," WWF-Brasil's director, Mariana Napolitano, said. But more is still needed, including traceability and transparency in the trade of livestock, gold and other commodities, she added. Reporting by Gabriel Araujo and Peter Frontini; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Sandra MalerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Persons: Bruno Kelly, Marina Silva, INPE, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Jair Bolsonaro, Lula, Bolsonaro, Mariana Napolitano, Gabriel Araujo, Peter Frontini, Jonathan Oatis, Sandra Maler Organizations: REUTERS, Environment Ministry, Thomson Locations: Uruara, Para, Brazil
[1/2] Brazil's Environment Minister Marina Silva meets Davi Kopenawa, chief of the Yanomami, after a ceremony to commemorate Amazon Day, at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, September 5, 2023. Environmentalists say Indigenous groups are the best guardians of the rainforest and deforestation data shows that the forests on their reservations are the best conserved. Lula, who pledged to legalize the greatest number of reservations possible, has so far signed decrees recognizing eight Indigenous territories since taking office in January. The Supreme Court, however, is expected rule that the cut-off date for claiming ancestral lands that were not lived on in 1988 is unconstitutional for denying recognized Indigenous rights. The reservations legalized by Lula on Tuesday are the Acapuri de Cima and the Rio Gregorio Indigenous territories in the states of Amazonas and Acre, respectively.
Persons: Marina Silva, Davi Kopenawa, Ueslei Marcelino, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Lula, Cima, Sonia Guajajara, Guajajara, Anthony Boadle, Sandra Maler Organizations: Amazon, REUTERS, Rights, Rio, Indigenous Peoples, Thomson Locations: Brasilia, Brazil, Rights BRASILIA, Rio Gregorio, Amazonas, Acre
[1/2] An aerial view shows trees as the sun rises at the Amazon rainforest in Manaus, Amazonas State, Brazil October 26, 2022. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly/File PhotoBRASILIA, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Brazil's government wants the private sector to help reforest large swathes of the Amazon, the country's Environment Minister Marina Silva said in an interview, using concessions to replant some 12 million hectares (120,000 square km) of forest by 2030. The plan's outlines were sketched out in a briefing last week by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has vowed to end Amazon deforestation by 2030. Concessions could also be granted to generate other products, like oilseeds, fibers and resins, along with potential carbon credit schemes. The vast Amazon rainforest is a key buffer against climate change.
Persons: Bruno Kelly, Marina Silva, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Silva, Andre Lima, Jair Bolsonaro, Lisandra, Gabriel Stargardter, Brad Haynes, Richard Chang Organizations: REUTERS, country's, Reuters, Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, Thomson Locations: Manaus, Amazonas State, Brazil, BRASILIA, Brasilia, Colombia, Peru, Belem
The logo of Brazil's state-run Petrobras oil company is seen on a tank in at Petrobras Paulinia refinery in Paulinia, Brazil July 1, 2017. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker/File PhotoBELEM, Brazil, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Environmental demonstrators protested on Sunday against plans by Brazilian state-run oil company Petrobras (PETR4.SA) to drill for oil at the mouth of the Amazon river. Petrobras has appealed against a decision by Brazil's environmental protection agency, Ibama, to deny it permission to drill an exploratory well at the mouth of the Amazon, saying the request lacked an environmental assessment of the project. It reaches a technical opinion that must be obeyed," said the minister, who has opposed the plan to drill at the mouth of the Amazon. Lula said Guyana's president would like Petrobras to explore for oil off-shore from his country.
Persons: Paulo Whitaker, Luis Barbosa, Marina Silva, Ibama, Silva, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Lula, Leonardo Benassatto, Leslie Adler Organizations: Petrobras Paulinia, REUTERS, Environmental, Petrobras, PETR4, Amazon, Thomson Locations: Paulinia, Brazil, BELEM, Amazon, Suriname, Guyana, Amapá
Nearly 500 square kilometers (193 square miles) of rainforest were cleared in July, a significant fall from the 1,487 square kilometers (574 square miles) cleared last July. There has been a sharp decline in deforestation since Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was inaugurated as president in January. Brazil’s environment minister, Marina Silva, said government policies, including increasing surveillance and fining perpetrators, has played a big role in bringing rates of deforestation down. The reduced rate of deforestation is positive news at a time when the Amazon remains critically vulnerable. In 2022 an area of global tropical forest the size of Switzerland was lost as forest destruction rose by 10% compared to the previous year, according to a recent report from the World Resources Institute’s (WRI) Global Forest Watch.
Persons: Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Lula, Jair, Marina Silva, ” Silva, Moraes Almeida, Nelson Almedia Organizations: CNN, Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, Getty, Resources, Watch Locations: Brazilian, Para, Brazil, AFP, Belem, Switzerland
[1/6] A woman passes in front of a graffiti before a summit of Amazon rainforest nations at the Igarape Park, in Belem, Para state, Brazil August 4, 2023. REUTERS/Ueslei MarcelinoBRASILIA, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Amazon countries meeting next week for a summit on cooperation to save the rainforest aim to set up a scientific body like the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to share research, Brazil's environment minister told Reuters. The panel would help produce sustainable development policies for the countries of the region while remaining independent of governments, and monitor the impact of climate change on the Amazon rainforest and ecosystem, she said. Lula has overhauled Brazil's environment policies since taking office in January, succeeding far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who relaxed protection the environment and encouraged development of the Amazon, where deforestation soared. Preliminary government figures showed on Thursday that deforestation in Brazil's Amazon fell in July to its lowest level since 2017, boosting Lula's credibility on environmental policy ahead of the summit.
Persons: Ueslei Marcelino BRASILIA, Marina Silva, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Lula, Jair Bolsonaro, Lisandra Paraguassu, Anthony Boadle, Kevin Liffey Organizations: REUTERS, Ueslei, Reuters, Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, Thomson Locations: Belem , Para, Brazil, Belem
SAO PAULO, July 6 (Reuters) - Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon fell 34% in the first half of 2023, preliminary government data showed on Thursday, hitting its lowest level in four years as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva institutes tougher environmental policies. But that's an area more than three times the size of New York City, underscoring the challenge Lula faces to eliminate deforestation entirely. "It's very positive, but we continue to have very high levels of deforestation," said Daniel Silva, an analyst at nonprofit WWF-Brasil. An aerial view shows a deforested area during an operation to combat deforestation near Uruara, Para State, Brazil January 21, 2023. In June alone, Inpe satellite data showed deforestation totaled 663 sq km, down 41% from the same month a year ago.
Persons: Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Inpe, Lula, Daniel Silva, Jair Bolsonaro, Ueslei Marcelino, Marina Silva, Silva, Joao Paulo Capobianco, Carolina Pulice, Jake Spring, Gabriel Araujo, Sandra Maler Organizations: SAO PAULO, WWF, Brasil, REUTERS, Environment Ministry, Thomson Locations: New York City, Uruara, Para State, Brazil
With Brazil struggling in its efforts to create a regulated carbon market, the country’s new president is moving to scrap his predecessor’s approach and start anew. Financing carbon-capture projects such as reforestation could also generate carbon credits. For example, a local regulated carbon market could help exporters avoid the carbon border adjustment mechanism the EU plans to charge on some imported products from 2026. Exporters also hope a regulated market would help repair Brazil’s abysmal environmental reputation, a product of its history of deforestation. The da Silva administration plans to have a carbon market operating in a couple of years, Toni said.
Persons: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Jair Bolsonaro, , Gustavo Pinheiro, Luiz Gustavo Bezerra, Mayer Brown, Pelerson Penido Dalla Vecchia, Antônio Queiroz, Bezerra, Ana Toni, Silva, Toni, da Silva, Marina Silva, Annie Groth, , Paulo Trevisani Organizations: Brazil, Climate, Society, Union, Vale, Agence France, group’s, International Chamber of Commerce, EU, Sustainable Business, National Secretariat, Street, Brazil’s Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade, Services, Environmental Ministry, United Nations Locations: Brazil, Paris, Braskem, Brazilian, Pennsylvania, Peru, Dubai
[1/2] A logo of Brazil's state-run Petrobras oil company is seen at its headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil October 16, 2019. REUTERS/Sergio MoraesSAO PAULO, May 18 (Reuters) - A decision by Brazil's environmental regulator to block state-owned oil company Petrobras' Amazon oil project has exposed tensions in President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's coalition between green advocates and those prioritizing economic development. Ibama, late on Wednesday, said it would block a request by state-run oil giant Petrobras (PETR4.SA) to drill at the Amazon mouth near Amapá, in a much-awaited decision that followed a technical recommendation by Ibama experts to reject the project. The decision by Ibama, which is overseen by Lula's environment minister, the globally recognized environmentalist Marina Silva, has riled some within the governing coalition. "We'll fight against this decision," Rodrigues wrote on Twitter, adding that "the people of Amapa want to have the right to be heard".
[1/4] A helicopter of the Brazilian Environmental Agency (IBAMA) is seen near Uraricoera river during an operation at illegal mining in the Yanomami indigenous land, Roraima state, Brazil, February 11, 2023. REUTERS/Amanda Perobelli/File PhotoBRASILIA, May 1 (Reuters) - Brazilian police and environmental protection agents were ambushed by illegal gold miners on the Yanomami Indigenous reservation in the Amazon on Monday and four miners were shot dead in the exchange of gunfire, a government statement said. The Environment Ministry said their team was attacked when they moved in to dismantle a wildcat mining camp run by an organized crime gang. Brazilian authorities are keen to show that they mean business in their efforts to remove the remainder of the wildcat miners on the reservation following the fatal shooting of a Yanomami man. Gold miners killed one man and seriously injured two others in an attack on Saturday in the Yanomami territory, where authorities have been evicting illegal miners who invaded Brazil's largest indigenous reservation, the size of Portugal.
"I am convinced that both Ukraine and Russia are waiting for someone else to say, 'Let's sit down and talk,'" Lula told journalists last week. Lula has suggested a peace solution could be the return of newly invaded territory, though not Crimea - an option that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has rejected outright. For his initiative to advance, Lula needs China to send a message to Russia, said a European diplomat in Brasilia. Some 20 agreements to be signed include creation of a sixth satellite in a joint program started in 1988, which will be used for monitoring the Amazon, Brazil's foreign ministry said. China overtook the United States as Brazil's top trading partner in 2009 and is a major market for Brazilian soybeans, iron ore and oil.
[1/3] John Kerry, U.S. Special Envoy for Climate, talks with Brazil's Environment Minister Marina Silva during a meeting in Brasilia, Brazil February 28, 2023. Lula and U.S. President Joe Biden pledged to work together on climate change in a meeting at the White House earlier this month. Protecting the Amazon is vital to curbing climate change because of the vast quantity of greenhouse gas its trees absorb. He said that the United States was still considering how much to give to the Amazon Fund. Silva said she discussed with Kerry the possibility of opening up the United States to more sustainable sourced products from Brazil.
REUTERS/Ueslei MarcelinoSAO PAULO, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest fell in January from a year earlier, satellite data showed on Friday, in the first monthly figures under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. In mid-January, Brazilian environmental agents launched their first anti-logging raids under Lula, who has pledged to end surging destruction under his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro. The fresh figures come after Reuters reported exclusively on Thursday that the United States was considering its first contribution to a multilateral fund aimed at fighting Amazon deforestation, with a possible announcement during President Joe Biden's meeting with Lula at the White House on Friday. The Brazilian-administered Amazon Fund, supported mainly by Norway and Germany, was reactivated by Environment Minister Marina Silva the day she took office last month, after being frozen since 2019 under Bolsonaro. The Brazilian government is also fighting wildcat mining on Yanomami land in the Amazon, its largest indigenous reservation, amid a humanitarian crisis blamed on illegal gold miners.
Days later a violent movement of election-denying Bolsonaro supporters stormed Brazil’s presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court. Biden and Lula are not expected to agree on the war in Ukraine given Brazil's neutrality. On CNN, Lula defended his decision not to provided German-made artillery ammunition sought for the West's support of Ukrainian defense. Brazil's foreign ministry said support for democracy, human rights and the environment will be at the center of Lula's agenda in Washington. Lula traveled to Washington with Environment Minister Marina Silva, who is expected to meet with Biden's climate envoy John Kerry.
Germany pledges funds to help Brazil defend Amazon rainforest
  + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +2 min
BRASILIA, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Germany on Monday pledged 200 million euros ($217 million) to help Brazil defend the Amazon rainforest, a global ecosystem devastated during years of rule under former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. The sum includes a donation of 35 million euros ($38 million) to the Amazon Fund to strengthen a billion-dollar initiative funded by Norway and Germany to protect the South American rainforest and fight deforestation. The Amazon Fund was re-activated by Brazil's Environment Minister Marina Silva the day she took office vowing to halt deforestation in the world's largest tropical rainforest. As president Bolsonaro said Brazilians had the right to develop natural resources in the Amazon. The German assistance includes socio-environmental projects to support Brazilian states in the Amazon rainforest and low-interest loans to farmers for the reforestation of their land, a statement issued by Brazil said.
She said Brazil has regained the trust of the European Parliament with regards to resistance to the EU trade deal with South America's Mercosur bloc. Speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF), Silva said Brazil's new government that took office on Jan. 1, was rebuilding Brazil's environmental agencies and policies that were "completely dismantled" by the previous administration. Silva said President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had offered to hold the COP30 climate summit in the Amazon region in 2025 to show its commitment towards curbing in climate change. Silva and Finance Minister Fernando Haddad represented Brazil at the WEF and discussed the country's economic, social and environmental roadmap in a panel. Reporting by Alessandra Galloni in Davos, Anthony Boadle and Eduardo Simoes in Brazil; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Bernadette BaumOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Among Thursday's highlights were Marina Silva for environment minister and Senator Simone Tebet as planning and budget minister. Lula gave them key positions after they provided crucial endorsements for his narrow Oct. 30 election victory over outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro. One of Brazil's best-known environmentalists, Silva previously held the same ministerial position for five years during Lula's first term as president, overseeing a significant drop in deforestation. "She played an extremely important role in the campaign," Lula said of Tebet, who will oversee Brazil's budget and set up a multiannual plan with goals for the administration. Lula, who had previously disclosed 21 of the future ministers, also tapped other moderate figures to his cabinet in order to secure support in Congress.
The Amazon Fund, started under leftist Lula's first administration from 2003-2010, bankrolled conservation projects and counts Norway and Germany as its biggest donors. Right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro froze the fund, citing unspecified spending irregularities among fund-backed projects run by nongovernmental organizations, without providing evidence. The British embassy said its government was studying the invitation to join the Amazon Fund. Izabella Teixeira, Lula's former environment minister and current climate change adviser, told Reuters she had met with Norwegian and German officials on Monday about restarting the fund. Deforestation soared to a 15-year high under Bolsonaro, who called for more farming and mining in the Amazon region.
An EU official said Lula would also meet on Wednesday with EU climate policy chief Frans Timmermans. Last month, Lula defeated right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, who oversaw mounting destruction of the Amazon rainforest and refused to host the 2019 climate summit originally planned for Brazil. His team also worked to secure a jungle conservation alliance announced on Monday between the three largest rainforest nations - Brazil, Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia. They said other countries know Brazil will soon have a Lula government that has promised to take the issue more seriously than Bolsonaro, a climate change sceptic. Colombia's Environment Minister Susana Muhamad said Lula's election would allow renewed regional cooperation among Amazon rainforest nations to tackle deforestation, a major contributor to climate change.
Lula's team also worked to secure a jungle conservation alliance announced on Monday between the three largest rainforest nations - Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. That includes pushing for rich nations with high greenhouse gas emissions to pay poor nations for historic damage the climate. Colombia's Environment Minister Susana Muhamad said Lula's election would allow for renewed regional cooperation among Amazon rainforest nations to tackle deforestation, a major contributor to climate change. Lula environmental advisor Izabella Teixeira said she felt the mood about Brazil has shifted at COP27 from previous summits. "When I come to COP and meet people after the election of President Lula, there is hope," she said.
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