The United Kingdom announced on Saturday 35 million pounds (40.5 million euros) to fund Brazil’s Amazon as part of the Climate Summit (COP28) in Dubai, according to official sources.
The announcement was made during a visit by Brazilian President Luis Inacio in May, when UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak formalized an 80 million pound (93 million euro) announced contribution to the fund. Lula da Silva, to London.
According to a report by Brazil’s National Bank for Economic and Social Development, the donations confirm the interest shown by the British government in cooperating with the fund.
The Amazon Fund, created in 2008 during Lula’s second term, operated until 2019, when current former president Jair Bolsonaro decided to deactivate it, in a context of promoting policies to promote mining and other economic activities in the region.
Lula, who took office for a third term in January, reversed these policies and decided to reactivate the fund, which now has the support of new donors such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Switzerland, Denmark and the European Union. Norway and Germany are the countries that have financially supported the initiative since its creation.
The fund provides irrevocable support for the prevention, monitoring and combating of deforestation and the conservation and sustainable use of the Amazon.
Since its creation, the mechanism has supported 106 projects, with a total of 1.8 billion reais (339.5 million euros), actions that have benefited about 241 thousand people with sustainable production activities, as well as one hundred indigenous lands in the Amazon and 196 conservation units.
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