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Vice President Hamilton Mourão criticized on Wednesday the fact that the international community, despite pressure, is not expanding funding for operations in the Amazon to tackle deforestation and protect biodiversity. According to him, after the pandemic, governments will not have the resources to allocate to the region and the private sector will have to expand its participation. “
His statement came during the World Economic Forum, in a debate organized to address “financing for the transition of the Amazon towards a sustainable future” and which Mourão defended to be “open.
“While international interest in the state of the Amazon has increased significantly, the same cannot be said for international financial and technical cooperation,” said the vice president. “The current needs are below,” he warned.
According to him, the Brazilian government, after breaking with Norway and Germany, has now renegotiated the Amazon Fund, established in 2008 to finance forest preservation.
In the first months of the Bolsonaro government in 2019, Oslo and Berlin were surprised by the decision of Minister Ricardo Salles to break with the mechanism that guaranteed a billion dollars for the region. However, the criterion was based on the country’s ability to reduce deforestation.
Now calling the mechanism “innovative” and praising its “important role in the implementation of crucial projects,” Mourão said the government is negotiating with these two countries to resume the distribution of resources. Other initiatives were also mentioned, such as actions with the Inter-American Development Bank.
Private Sector Relief
Mourão also insisted on the need to attract private investors to the region, as a way to guarantee a “sustainable future”. But he admitted that there is an obstacle: the lack of an enabling environment for these investments in the absence of a basic structure.
“It is important that the private sector take the initiative in financing research and scientific programs in the region,” he said.
“Let’s be honest: governments are primarily responsible for ensuring the protection of the environment,” he said. “But, especially in a post-pandemic economic scenario, governments will not have surpluses available for this type of action,” he warned.
Davos without Bolsonaro
His speech comes a day after he said, in an exclusive interview with CNN, that he missed having a more frequent dialogue with President Jair Bolsonaro. “There are no ongoing talks between us. The talks are very sporadic,” the general said. Asked if more dialogue is needed, he replied: “Yes, it is necessary. It is even necessary that I understand at certain times what I have to do.”
Davos had invited Bolsonaro to his annual event, which takes place this year virtually. But the Brazilian president did not comply with the request and instead appointed Mourão. The vice president spoke in a debate in which the vice president of Colombia, Iván Duque, María Alexandra Moreira López, general secretary of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, and Mauricio Claver-Carone, president of the Inter-American Development Bank, also participated.
On the Brazilian side, the debate also featured the president of BNDES, Gustavo Montezano, the CEO of Vale, Eduardo de Salles Bartolomeo, and the CEO of Itaú Unibanco, Candido Botelho Bracher.
Despite the fact that his country is only 6% of the Amazon basin, Ivan Duque has assumed a kind of leadership on the issue in Davos in recent years. In his speech he warned that the biggest threats are related to deforestation due to illegal mining, illegal crops and illegal livestock. “We all have to face these threats,” he defended.
Al Gore, EU, The Hague, Macron and parliaments press
In 2019, in Bolsonaro’s only participation in Davos, the president was caught in a conversation with former US Vice President Al Gore. When asked by the American on the issue of deforestation in the Amazon, Bolsonaro said he was interested in “exploring” the site, together with the US government. Confused by the answer, Gore admitted that he didn’t understand what it meant. The video went viral.
But the Brazilian government has been the target of strong international pressure also in diplomatic and economic circles due to the deforestation situation that, in 2020, reached high levels. In Europe, national and regional parliaments have passed motions to prevent the bloc from closing a trade agreement with Mercosur.
On the eve of Mourão’s participation in Davos, former Brazilian ministers met to send a letter to European governments asking for help regarding deforestation. Over the weekend, Brazilian chiefs filed a complaint with Bolsonaro before the International Criminal Court for the plight of indigenous people and deforestation.
This week, the European Commission announced again that it will establish laws that will prevent companies from importing raw materials or inputs if they do not prove that the products are sustainable.
President Emmanuel Macron of France made it clear that his government would not ratify the Mercosur treaty in the current deforestation conditions in Brazil and initiated a policy to reduce the purchase of Brazilian soybeans. Itamaraty believes that Paris uses the environmental agenda to disguise a protectionist policy.
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