The Brazilian government wants companies, investment funds and individuals, both from Brazil and the rest of the world, to contribute money to preserve the Amazon. To this end, it launched an initiative this Tuesday seeking sponsors for the 120 nature reserves created in recent decades, that is, 15% of the area of the world’s largest tropical forest in Brazilian territory. They are approximately 63 million hectares. The program Adopt a park – Name that underestimates the exuberance, expansion and ecological value of those areas that make up the territory of France – was presented this Tuesday by the president, Jair Bolsonaro, in Brasilia. Environmentalists consider it a purely propaganda initiative.
Brazil is feeling increasing political and commercial pressure over the government’s policy on the Amazon, which the United States is now expected to join with Joe Biden. The initiative is open to foreign sponsors, despite the fact that for Bolsonaro and a large part of Brazilians, foreign interest in the Amazon hides threats to their sovereignty. Of course the price differs. The locals can adopt an ecological reserve for 50 reais per hectare (8 euros, 9 dollars) and for foreigners it costs 10 euros.
The first and only company that has provisionally committed to participate is French supermarket chain Carrefour. French President Emmanuel Macron is exactly the president who has most criticized the Bolsonaro government in the past two years for lack of interest in preserving the Amazon, the increase in deforestation to record levels and the increase in fires. The ultra-right, who criminalized NGOs in the campaign and pledged to prioritize Amazon’s economic development over its preservation, referred to coincidence: “To those who criticize us, we can say, ‘Look, we have no economic conditions. to serve these areas, help us. And a French company was the first to appear ”.
Carrefour needs to improve its reputation in Brazil after two of its white guards beat up a black customer at the door of one of its supermarkets last November. According to the newspaper, the multinational has made plans Estadão, formalize the approval of the 75,000 hectare Cuniã Lake Reserve, located in the state of Rondonia, on the border with Bolivia. This area the size of Caracas has a legal status that allows for controlled logging or subsistence farming. According to the Minister of the Environment Ricardo Salles, five other companies are negotiating about sponsorship Bloomberg.
The management of the reserves – the so-called conservation units – remains in the hands of governmental environmental organizations such as Ibama (Brazilian Institute for the Environment) or the Chico Mendes Institute (ICMBio, aimed at preserving biodiversity). NGOs and environmentalists argue that it would be much more effective to stop systematically eroding the capacity of these institutions. In a note, Greenpeace accused the Bolsonaro government of “promoting a new media move to clean up its image,” while “continuing to destroy the tools protecting the defense units, scrap the ICMBio, militarize its structures and make significant progress. make cuts “.
To Carrefour and other companies that may be interested, forest manager and activist Cristiane Mazzeti urged them in a tweet to stop using the environment to clean up its reputation and “hurry to deliver on its zero deforestation promises”.
Internal tensions in Bolsonaro’s cabinet were also highlighted at the presentation of Adopt a park. The main interlocutor of diplomats and investment funds concerned about the government’s environmental policy has been the vice president, retired General Hamilton Mourão, since the 2019 fire crisis, who did not participate in the event in which Minister Salles was. The environment minister openly said in a cabinet meeting that he was going to take advantage of the pandemic drawing all the media attention to pass laws that weaken environmental control and facilitate agribusiness.
Bolsonaro’s cabinet first articulated the idea of seeking sponsors for the preservation of the Amazon in an all-out public battle with American actor Leonardo di Caprio in 2019, when fires devoured thousands of acres in the Amazon.
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