Brazil Backtracks After Announcing a Halt on Deforestation Fight
- Environment Ministry said there isn’t enough funding to go on
- Brazilian VP quickly dispelled claim and guaranteed resources
A burning area of Amazon rainforest reserve, south of Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil on Aug. 16.
Photographer: Carl De Souza/AFP via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Brazil’s vice president denied the government is halting funds to combat deforestation, as announced earlier on Friday by the Environmental Ministry, in another sign of the country’s confusing policies toward the Amazon.
“All operations to combat illegal deforestation in the Amazon, along with all operations to combat the fires in the Pantanal and other regions” will be stopped effective Monday, the Environmental Ministry said in a note posted Friday on its website. The decision was attributed to a federal budget freeze, which cut about 60 million reais ($11 million) from the ministry’s operations.