US, Switzerland Donate $8.4M to Brazil's Amazon Fund

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Facts

• The US and Switzerland have donated $8.4M to Brazil's Amazon Fund to preserve the world's largest tropical rainforest, the Brazilian National Development Bank (BNDES) said on Tuesday. The bank said Switzerland contributed $5.4M and the US $3M.¹
• The Amazon Fund supports the prevention, monitoring, and combat of deforestation and fosters sustainable development in the rainforest region. Since its creation in 2008, it has funded 102 projects, investing $340M, BNDES said.²
• Germany, the US, the UK, the EU, and Switzerland together pledged $655M to the fund. However, to date, not all of them have paid, while some have not yet paid the full amounts they pledged.³
• In April, President Joe Biden had said he would seek congressional approval to send $500M over the next five years to the Amazon Fund. However, officials were pessimistic, especially considering the context of a Republican-controlled House.⁴
• Stopping deforestation in the Amazon is part of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's transformative plan to reclaim leadership over climate change measures.⁵
• More than 4 million hectares — a Switzerland-sized area — of forests vanished from the tropics in 2022 in parts of the world like Brazil and Central Africa, data from the University of Maryland shows. Alarmingly, this loss was 10% greater than in 2021.⁶

Sources: ¹Reuters (a), ²Today, ³Folha de s.paulo, ⁴Business, ⁵Reuters (b) and ⁶Vox.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Guardian. Amazon countries need the world's help to curb deforestation. Besides financial incentives like funds and debt relief, they must also be assisted in fields such as law enforcement and resource conservation. At a time when the world is facing rapid destruction, it would be foolhardy to leave these nations to fend for themselves.
• Narrative B, as provided by Vox. Over the years, many countries and companies have publicly committed to protecting the world's tropical lungs. Evidently, pledges alone are ineffective as there is no accountability — the risks to livelihoods, profitability, and demographics sap them of all political will. As long as it remains more profitable to cut down trees than to protect them, words are meaningless.

Predictions