As Brazilian authorities prepare for the upcoming COP30 climate summit in November in Belém, constructing a new four-lane highway - Avenida Liberdade - through the protected Amazon rainforest has sparked controversy. The structure seeks to ease traffic for the expected 50,000 attendees, including world leaders. But it has led to significant deforestation, fragmenting ecosystems and disrupting wildlife movement along its 13 kilometers.
Deforestation alerts in the Amazon fell by 50% in 2023, according to a report from the Deter system released Friday by Brazil's National Space Research Institute (INPE), with data collected until Dec. 29 in an area of 5,152 km². It was the lowest rate since 2018, it also explained. In 2022, the alerts had registered 10,278 km² of deforested areas, the highest level ever.
French President Emmanuel Macron Saturday pledged € 500 million over the next three years to Brazil's Amazon Fund, while the United Kingdom announced an additional £ 35 million (around € 40.78 million) in addition to the £ 80 million (€ 93.22 million) it had already announced in May, Agencia Brasil reported.
A new study showing a 22.3% drop in the deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon was released Thursday, Agencia Brasil reported. The document also highlighted that the latest figures represented the best results in the matter since 2019.
The entire state of Amazonas has been gripped by a severe drought, with most municipalities (60) in a state of emergency and 2 in a state of alert, Agencia Brasil reported. The El Niño phenomenon has been linked to the ongoing crisis.
US troops will be commencing Tuesday a training exercise in Brazil's Eastern Amazon area, Agencia Brasil reported. Operation Core (Combined Operation and Rotation Exercise) 23, which stems from a bilateral defense deal signed in 2015, will bring together 294 US military personnel with the Brazilian Army from Oct. 24 to Nov. 20 in Belém, the capital of the Northern state of Pará, as well as in the municipalities of Ferreira Gomes, Oiapoque, and Macapá, in Amapá state.
Ecuador's Environment and Ecological Transition Minister José Antonio Dávalos announced that some 4,000 hectares of native forests in the Amazon region will be reforested because they are sources of life that provide clean air, water, and recreational spaces, it was reported in Quito.
The Peruvian administration of President Dina Boluarte pledged to use the proceeds from a US$ 20 million debt swap with the United States for climate action in the Amazon to finance a tropical forest protection fund over the next 13 years, it was reported Wednesday in Lima. It is the third debt-for-nature swap between the two governments.
Brazil’s government said it could not interfere with a landmark EU law banning imports of commodities linked to deforestation but will keep farming according to its own laws. The law approved by the European Parliament on April 19 bans imports of coffee, beef, soy, palm oil, cocoa, rubber, wood, charcoal and derived products including leather, chocolate and furniture if they are linked to forest destruction.
President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva Tuesday pledged to expand the indigenous territories in northeast Brazil in a move to expel organized crime groups extracting natural resources from those areas.