Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva discussed Thursday the Mercosur agreement with European Union (EU) President Ursula von der Leyen in a telephone conversation during which both leaders also reviewed the South American country's fight against deforestation, it was reported.
Germany has pledged €200 million to help Brazil defend the Amazon forest. German Chanellor Olaf Scholz made the announcement during a visit to Brasilia where he met with president Lula da Silva and congratulated him for the return of Brazil to the world stage.
One-third of the Amazon rainforest has been degraded by a combination of human activity and drought, according to a scientific report carried this week by the journal Science. The study released on Thursday yielded results much higher than previously thought and underlined that, in addition to deforestation, degradation can be just as harmful.
Brazilian authorities Monday said during a press conference in Manaus that they had nearly solved the murders of British reporter Dom Phillips and indigenous affairs expert Bruno Araújo Pereira, which were perpetrated on June 5, last year, in the middle of the Amazon jungle.
According to a report released Wednesday by Brazil's Institute of Man and Environment of the Amazon (Imazon), deforestation in 2022 hit new highs, with 10,573 km² of forest vegetation lost, Agencia Brasil reported. That surface is tantamount to that of nearly 3,000 football fields, it was explained.
Marina Silva, an active environmentalist, has been appointed Brazil's next environment minister by president elect Lula da Silva. Ms Silva held a similar post in Lula's first government in 2003, but following strong differences stepped down and formed her own political party.
Wildfires in Boca do Acre, Amazonas, went from 66% in 2012, the year the new Forest Code was approved, to 88% in 2019, according to a report from the National Center for Monitoring and Alerts of Natural Disasters (Cemaden) published Tuesday in partnership with other organizations, Agencia Brasil reported.
Brazil's Amazon lost 903.8 square kilometers of forest during the month of October of 2022, which is tantamount to 3% more than in the same period last year, the National Institute of Special Research (INPE) reported during the weekend.
Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom are supporting a plan from the Colombian government, working with local communities to contain deforestation in the Colombian Amazon, it was announced at the COP27 taking place at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
A group of scientists has found the world's tallest tree, a towering specimen the size of a 25-story building in the Amazon rainforest, it was reported this weekend.