Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva has launched an international fund to protect the Amazon rainforest and help combat climate change, BBC online reports Saturday.
The fund will promote alternatives to forest-clearing for people living in the Amazon, and support conservation and sustainable development. Officials will seek donations abroad and aim to raise 21billion US dollar (98 milliarder DKR) by 2021.
But a government minister said Brazil would not accept foreign interference in its Amazon policy.
The environmental group Greenpeace said it was the first time Brazil had accepted a link between global warming and preserving the rainforest. Speaking at the launch in Rio de Janeiro, President Lula said Brazil was aware of how much the Amazon meant to the wider world.
Brazilian Environment Minister Carlos Minc called for a radical change in environmental attitudes:
– We are committed to reducing the destruction of the rainforest, to eliminating illegal burning and to guaranteeing a better quality of life for all. Our war is not won by simply reducing illegal burning in one month, it will be won once this environmental model that is destroying our communities and biodiversity is history, said he.
