Rich countries should pay billions of dollars to help Brazil protect the Amazon, says the country’s environment minister, who called for more investment and development in the rainforest area.
“We want to attract investment . . . it is necessary to maintain the forest,” Ricardo Salles told the Financial Times. “The opportunity cost [of preserving the forest] must be paid by someone, and when we say someone, means those who have the funds or the necessary sources of finance for that.”
He estimated that $ 120 per hectare a year would be sufficient to pay farmers and other locals not to develop their land — equivalent to $12bn annually if applied across one-fifth of the Amazon, the area that could be legally developed.
The Brazilian government has been on a campaign to restore its image after fires ravaged the Amazon this summer, prompting international condemnation and a threat of boycotts from European governments and asset managers.
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This summer Germany and Norway both halted their payments to the Brazilian government’s Amazon Fund, while European investment funds with $16tn in assets threatened to divest from Brazilian bonds and equities if action was not taken by the Brazilian government to prevent deforestation.
But Mr Salles condemned rich countries for attacking Brazil’s environmental record while failing to pay the country an amount commensurate with the value of protecting the rainforest.
“Any sort of boycott will only have one consequence, to make things worse,” he said, speaking in London during a European tour.
Since far-right President Jair Bolsonaro took office in January, he has encouraged economic development in the Amazon.
“Development is not contrary to the diminishment of deforestation, quite the opposite,” said Mr Salles. “We saw the lack of development with the rise of deforestation.”
He said the government was preparing an economic zoning master plan for the Amazon, and he hoped pharmaceutical, cosmetics and food companies would invest more there.
