Norway and Germany announce the return of the Amazon Fund with Lula

A few hours after the confirmation of the result of the 2nd round of the presidential elections in Brazil, the government of Norway confirmed that it intends to resume the allocation of resources for the Amazon Fund, paralyzed since 2019 due to administrative disagreements with the administration of Jair Bolsonaro.

“We will talk to his [Lula’s] team to prepare the formalities and set up a management structure,” promised Norway’s minister of climate and environment, Espen Barth Eide. “There are significant amounts frozen in a Brazilian account in the Amazon Fund that can be disbursed quickly.”

After Norway, the government of Germany signaled its willingness to unfreeze the financial transfers as of the inauguration of President-elect Lula. Jochen Flasbarth, Secretary of State in the German Ministry for Cooperation and Development, said that the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz “is ready to re-engage with Brazil together with our Norwegian colleagues in support of the Amazon Fund”.

The resumption of the Amazon Fund will be vital for the Lula government to achieve the promise of zero deforestation in the next decade. In a scenario of severe budget cuts in the environmental area – which have been taking place since the end of Dilma Rousseff’s government, but were intensified under Bolsonaro – the arrival of international resources can close the accounting equation to enable the strengthening of enforcement and monitoring, as well as the incentive for sustainable development projects that favor the standing forest.