Unedited from Press Assoc.
German development minister Svenja Schulze has announced her government will make 222 million dollars (£179 million) available for environmental policies in Brazil.
Of this, 38 million dollars (£30.7 million) is a donation to the Amazon Fund, Ms Schulze said in the Brazilian capital Brasilia.
It is the most important international co-operation effort to preserve the Amazon rainforest.
In 2019, former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who considered the Amazon an internal affair, dissolved the steering committee that selects sustainable projects to finance.
CLIMATE PROTECTION
200 million euros for immediate program with Brazil
Development Minister Svenja Schulze gives the go-ahead for new projects in the areas of forest protection and reforestation
Press release of January 30, 2023 |
German Development Minister Svenja Schulze is meeting the Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva in Brasilia today.
The two ministers gave the go-ahead for the Fundo Floresta – a fund that will immediately provide money for forest protection and the sustainable use of forests in the Amazon region.
The Development Ministry ( BMZ ) pays 31 million euros into this fund. The minister released a further 93 million euros for projects to reforest deforested areas in the Amazon region.
In total, the BMZ is supporting the new Brazilian government with 200 million euros in the first 100 days of its term of office.
In addition to global climate protection, the aim of the measures is to improve the situation of the indigenous population groups in the Amazon region.
Their livelihoods are being destroyed by deforestation and other encroachments on their areas.
Minister Schulze agreed on close cooperation with Environment Minister Marina Silva and Indigenous Minister Sonja Guajajara.
Svenja Schulze: “I came to Brazil to talk and listen: where can we provide support, what do people here expect from Germany? It is always about the division of Brazilian society and the enormous tasks facing the new government. President Lula has promised to end deforestation and make the economy greener and more sustainable. This structural change will only succeed if it is social at the same time, if it is fair and if individual regions or population groups are not left behind. A lot depends on his success – for all of us. The forest in the Amazon is the green lung of the whole world. Climate protection will not work without Brazil.”
The 200 million with which the BMZ is supporting the new Brazilian government is broken down as follows:
- With 93 million euros, we support smallholders in the reforestation of deforested areas. These include a project with the Instituto Terra, founded by the famous photographer Sebastiao Salgado.
- 35 million euros flow through the Amazon fund into projects that protect the forest from destruction and deforestation, including in more than 100 indigenous areas. These funds were already committed by the federal government in 2017. However, the fund was frozen under the previous Bolsonaro government. When the Lula government took office, the funds were released and can now be invested in new projects.
- 31 million euros are available through the newly founded Fundo Floresta for forest protection and bioeconomy projects. It is about supporting the local population in the sustainable use of the forest, for example in the further processing of fruits such as Brazil nuts or Açaí berries or of plants for cosmetics or medicinal products.
- 30 million euros are available in a program that supports small and medium-sized companies if they invest in measures to increase energy efficiency.
- With nine million euros, small and medium-sized companies are being supported in fulfilling their due diligence requirements when reviewing supply chains for sustainability and compliance with human rights.
- Five million euros flow into a consulting project to promote renewable energies in the industrial and transport sectors.
