The majority of the members of Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court (STF) voted Thursday in favor of resuming funding for the Amazon Fund to reactivate resources to preserve the rainforest within 60 days.
The STF responds with this request for reactivation in a lawsuit on the claim to the Brazilian Government, by the opposition parties, of the availability of available funds that should finance projects for the preservation of the Amazon.
According to the Court’s discussion, there are approximately 3 billion Brazilian reais (approximately 562,500 euros) in cash in a fund that has been paralyzed since 2019, reports the Brazilian newspaper ‘Folha de S.Paulo’.
Bolsonaro’s government put the plan on hold by extinguishing the Collegiate Guiding Committee (COFA) and the Technical Committee (CTFA), which were part of the fund. This situation, therefore, makes it impossible to invest in projects to combat deforestation and fires in the region.
The magistrates consider that the elimination of a successful financial policy in the fight against environmental degradation, without presenting an equivalent alternative, violates the constitutional principle that prohibits the regression of fundamental rights.
So far this year, the area of forest destroyed in the Amazon – from January to September – reached 9,069 square kilometers, about eight times the size of the city of Rio de Janeiro, according to the Institute of Man and the Environment of the Amazon (Imazon).
The Amazon Fund, created in 2008, aims to finance programs to preserve the forest and promote its sustainable development.
