BRASILIA (Reuters) – Denmark will donate 150 million Danish crowns ($21.9 million) to Brazil’s Amazon Fund to fight deforestation, Danish Minister for Development Cooperation and Global Climate Policy, Dan Jorgensen, announced on Tuesday with his Brazilian counterpart.
Jorgensen and Brazil’s Environment Minister Marina Silva said in a joint statement that climate change has an impact on forests, local communities and Indigenous peoples that need support to manage forests in sustainable way and promote trade in sustainably produced forest products.
The Amazon Fund was created in 2008 to raise donations to combat deforestation and promote preservation of the world’s largest tropical rainforest, with Norway providing an initial $1 billion. Germany has contributed to the fund, and more recently Britain and the European Union, while the United States plans to contribute $500 million over five years.
The ministers pledged to increase efforts to reverse biodiversity loss and combat deforestation, desertification, land degradation and drought, as well as to restore degraded lands, the statement said.
Jorgensen praised recent efforts by Brazil in the restoration and sustainable management of forests and in the effective fight against deforestation.
He said the Amazon Fund had a crucial role as a robust and transparent payment-for-results mechanism, with solid governance, in supporting Brazil’s efforts to end deforestation.
The Danish government donation for the period 2024 to 2026 is subject to parliamentary approval.
Silva said the proposed contribution to the Amazon Fund will support the Brazilian government’s efforts to end deforestation in the Amazon by 2030 and contribute to promoting sustainable development in the region.
($1 = 6.8487 Danish crowns)
(Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Chris Reese and Lincoln Feast.)
