Brazil Gains $150 Million in Foreign Funds for Amazon Rainforest Protection
- UK, Germany lead way in contributions for forest protection
- Brazil in talks with US, EU, others over funding pledges
An environmentally protected area of the Amazon region near Sao Felix do Xingu, Para state, Brazil, in 2021.
Photographer: Jonne Roriz/BloombergBrazil’s flagship Amazon rainforest protection program brought in one of the largest single-year funding hauls in its history in 2023, boosting President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s push to halt illegal deforestation by the end of the decade.
The Amazon Fund, an international conservation initiative launched in 2008 with the support of Germany and Norway, received 726 million reais ($148 million) in donations from other nations last year, government officials announced at an event in Brasilia on Thursday. That marks its best annual total since the year it began operating, said Tereza Campello, who oversees the fund for the country’s national development bank.