UK Minister Says UK May Join Amazon Fund

British Environment Minister Therese Coffey said the UK is considering joining a billion-dollar Amazon fund reopened by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to finance rainforest sustainability. “This is something we are looking at seriously,” Coffey told Reuters on Monday (02) in Brasilia, where he attended Lula’s inauguration on Sunday, January 1. He said the British government was already talking to the fund’s current partners, Norway and Germany, which have donated US$1.2 billion to build the initiative.

Funding was frozen by Jair Bolsonaro’s government, alleging irregularities between programs managed by NGOs, without providing any evidence. One of Lula’s first decisions in office was to roll back Bolsonaro policies that watered down environmental protections and helped contribute to a 15-year high in deforestation, including a move to encourage mining on protected indigenous lands. Lula also reopened Amazon Funding.

Therese Coffey said the UK would offer Brazil rural sustainability projects and low-carbon architecture to help raise funds, building on its strength as a global hub for green finance.

He said the UK was already Brazil’s third largest contributor to the environment, spending more than £250m from its international pilot fund.

Minister Therese Gobi met with Environment Minister Marina Silva, Agriculture Minister Carlos Favaro and Indigenous Peoples Minister Sonia Guajara.

Indigenous communities have been particularly hard hit by increased illegal mining and deforestation in the Amazon under Bolsonaro. “I see the will and the intent to change that,” he said.

Coffey added that Para Governor Helder Barbalho had invited him to visit his vast Amazonian state to see the rainforest projects, something he had never experienced before. “I believe it will change lives,” he said.

With acrolink group translation*