The United Kingdom announces another 215 million riyals to the Amazon Fund

Hey United kingdom It announced on Saturday 2nd, that it will add about 215 million riyals to the donation to Amazon box. The announcement was made during the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, by the UK Energy Security Minister, Claire Coutinho, in a meeting with the Brazilian Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Marina. Silva, and the President of the Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), Aloisio Mercadante.

A donation contract worth 500 million riyals to the Amazon Fund was also signed, which was announced in May by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, during President Lula’s visit to the United Kingdom, on the occasion of the coronation of King Charles III. Since its establishment, the Fund has received R$3.4 billion and financed more than 102 projects to conserve forests and promote sustainable activities in the Amazon region, with a total investment of R$1.75 billion. Countries like Norway, Germany, USA, Switzerland and now the UK are donor countries.

Resumption

In 2019, under the government of Jair Bolsonaro, the then Minister of the Environment, Ricardo Salles, extinguished the two committees responsible for managing the Amazon Fund's resources, making project financing and continuity of donations impossible. The existence of these committees is a contractual condition for donors, to prevent the use of funds for other purposes. According to BNDES data, Brazil stopped investing about 3 billion reais in environmental actions between 2019 and 2022, an amount that remained in the fund after the dissolution of the steering committees.

In October 2022, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) ordered the union to take the necessary measures to reactivate the Amazon Fund. The majority of ministers then concluded that the extinction of the commissions was unconstitutional, because it would constitute a failure on the part of the government in its duty to preserve the Amazon. The committees, reconstituted by decree issued by President Lula on January 1, 2023, have resumed their activities, allowing new contributions of resources.