OSLO, (Reuters) – Norway is ready to resume payments to Brazil over the prevention of the deforestation of the Amazon if there is a change of government in October’s elections as opinion polls suggest, the Nordic country’s environment and climate minister said.
Brazilians will vote to pick a new president, with leftist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva holding a 16-percentage-point lead against the far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro according to a June 8 survey.
Between 2008 and 2018, Norway paid $1.2 billion into the Amazon Fund, which pays Brazil to prevent, monitor and combat deforestation, with Oslo being by far the biggest donor. Rates of deforestation slowed during that period.
But the fund has been frozen after rates of destruction of the world’s largest rainforest soared under Bolsonaro, who took office in 2019 and weakened environmental protection, saying farming and mining in the Amazon reduce poverty.
