Brazil’s supreme court reactivates $620 million fund to protect the Amazon

by Peter Schulte

Brazil’s supreme court has ruled that the Amazon Fund, a critical funding mechanism fighting deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest, must be reactivated within 60 days. Initially launched in 2009 by the Brazilian government, in recent years the Fund has been effectively frozen by the country’s far-right president Jair Bolsanaro. Now, hundreds of millions of dollars will be made available to protect the country’s rainforests which foster incredible biodiversity and act as one of the world’s most important carbon sinks.

Though the billion-dollar Fund had been largely made possible through monetary contributions from Norway and Germany, both nations withdrew their financial support for the Fund due to Bolsanaro’s actions. Both countries have now committed to continuing their contributions.

The ruling comes weeks after Bolsanaro lost his re-election campaign to former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. In his second term as president, Lula was an integral force in establishing the Amazon Fund. Now, its reinstatement may prove an essential part of his broader efforts in his third term to roll back his predecessor’s vehemently anti-environmental policies and set his country and the world on a more climate-friendly trajectory.