Norway will resume support for Brazil against deforestation after Lula’s victory

Norway will resume its financial aid against the dAmazon deforestation in Brazil, frozen under the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, the Norwegian Minister of the Environment told AFP on Monday after the victory of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the Brazilian presidential election.

“As for Lula, we have seen that during the electoral campaign he emphasized the preservation of the Amazon forest and the protection of the indigenous populations of the Amazon,” explained Espen Barth Eide.

“That is why we are looking forward to making contact with their teams as soon as possible, to prepare the resumption of the historically positive collaboration between Brazil and Norway“, he added.

The Scandinavian country, the main supplier of funds for the protection of the forest Amazon, suspended its aid to Brazil in 2019, the year that Bolsonaro became president.

Under the presidency of the far-right leader, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon accelerated by 70%, a scandalous figure according to Barth Eide, who said that his country entered into a “head-on confrontation” with Bolsonaro over this issue.

According to the minister, 5 billion Norwegian kroner (about 482 million dollars) are waiting to be used in the Amazon rainforest preservation fund.

Lula, president between 2003 and 2011, assured on Sunday after his victory in the presidential election that Brazil is willing to play a leading role against climate change, and proclaimed that the planet needs a “living Amazon”.