Brazilian states unite to protect the Amazon without depending on Bolsonaro
The goal of the "Legal Amazon Consortium" is to raise 1.5 billion reais (about 300 million dollars) to finance sustainable projects.
The nine regional governments that are part of the Brazilian Amazon launched this Friday a strategy to combat deforestation of the largest tropical forest on the planet in which they will act directly, as a coalition to obtain resources, without depending on the Government of Jair Bolsonaro.
The goal of the "Legal Amazon Consortium" is to raise 1.5 billion reais (about 300 million dollars) to finance sustainable projects and strengthen the fight against the devastation of native vegetation in the Amazon region of the country.
It is an independent action of the Bolsonaro government, whose environmental policies have scared off foreign support for the care of the jungle.
The president defends the exploitation of natural resources in the Amazon, including in indigenous reserves, and has relaxed the control of activities that directly attack the environment, such as mining and the timber trade, mostly practiced illegally in that region. .
"We are creating, for the first time in Brazil, a regional strategy, which does not depend on the federal level, so that resources can be invested directly in the region," said Flavio Dino, governor of the state of Maranhao and president of the Consortium.
The resources will be used to launch the Green Recovery Plan (PRV) with which it seeks to curb illegal deforestation, promote sustainable productive development, invest in green technology and training and promote green infrastructure.
The strategy of these nine governors comes after, a week ago, the human rights defender organization Human Rights Watch directly requested those administrations to take "immediate" measures to fulfill their commitments to curb illegal deforestation, if they wanted to have resources. international
Since Bolsonaro came to power on January 1, 2019, the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest has been one of the worst in Brazil's history.
In the first half of the year, the devastation affected 3,609 square kilometers, 17.1% more than the logging registered between January and June 2020, according to data released this Friday by the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), and the highest rate registered for this period since 2016.
In 2020, 10,800 square kilometers of native vegetation were cut down in the Brazilian Amazon, the highest rate in 12 years.
The goal of the "Legal Amazon Consortium" is to raise 1.5 billion reais (about 300 million dollars) to finance sustainable projects and strengthen the fight against the devastation of native vegetation in the Amazon region of the country.
It is an independent action of the Bolsonaro government, whose environmental policies have scared off foreign support for the care of the jungle.
The president defends the exploitation of natural resources in the Amazon, including in indigenous reserves, and has relaxed the control of activities that directly attack the environment, such as mining and the timber trade, mostly practiced illegally in that region. .
"We are creating, for the first time in Brazil, a regional strategy, which does not depend on the federal level, so that resources can be invested directly in the region," said Flavio Dino, governor of the state of Maranhao and president of the Consortium.
The resources will be used to launch the Green Recovery Plan (PRV) with which it seeks to curb illegal deforestation, promote sustainable productive development, invest in green technology and training and promote green infrastructure.
The strategy of these nine governors comes after, a week ago, the human rights defender organization Human Rights Watch directly requested those administrations to take "immediate" measures to fulfill their commitments to curb illegal deforestation, if they wanted to have resources. international
Since Bolsonaro came to power on January 1, 2019, the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest has been one of the worst in Brazil's history.
In the first half of the year, the devastation affected 3,609 square kilometers, 17.1% more than the logging registered between January and June 2020, according to data released this Friday by the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), and the highest rate registered for this period since 2016.
In 2020, 10,800 square kilometers of native vegetation were cut down in the Brazilian Amazon, the highest rate in 12 years.