Environment chief in Brazil criticizes Amazon defense fund
SAO PAULO — Brazil’s environment minister questioned the effectiveness of the Amazon Fund created to protect the vast rain forest, the latest challenge to environmentalists from climate-change skeptics within the far-right government of President Jair Bolsonaro.
In a news conference at the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Natural Resources, Ricardo Salles on Friday cited alleged irregularities in contracts between nongovernmental organizations and the fund, challenging a belief among scientists and climate change experts that the fund efficiently contributes to anti-deforestation efforts.
Salles, who has said in the past that agribusiness in Brazil was “under threat,” said there was a need to create “indicators that could tangibly demonstrate the concrete result of the use of resources.”
The fund was created in 2008 to receive donations to help prevent, monitor and combat deforestation.
The environmental agenda of Bolsonaro, who questions the reality of climate change and has pledged to further open the Amazon to development, has been harshly criticized by activists and the opposition.
Marcelo Silva De Sousa is an Associated Press writer.