Brazil to seek compensation for preserving environment

Brazil’s Environment Minister Ricardo Salles said today (Nov. 27) that Brazil will seize the opportunity to be provided by the International Conference on Climate Change (COP25) to once again demand compensation from developed countries for the preservation of flora and fauna in the Brazilian territory.

Counted among the world’s leading events on climate change, the United Nations (UN) conference will be held in Madrid from December 2 to 13.

Salles is expected to fly to Madrid on November 30. “Our mission at COP will be to demand the enforcement of the promise made by rich countries to developing countries to promote resources in the necessary and sufficient amount to pay for the work already done by Brazil,” the minister declared during a special committee hearing at the lower house.

After the hearing, the minister told reporters that one of his priorities is the debate on the Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, adopted at the end of the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change and help countries tackle the effects of such changes. The minister said that regulating the article is crucial as it stipulates developing countries must receive financial aid to finance efforts to mitigate the effects of greenhouse gas emissions and bolster sustainable development. He noted that, when the Paris Agreement was sealed, in 2015, it was said that developed countries would make some $100 billion available every year.

“Brazil—which is certainly the developing country that has done the most for environmental preservation, boasting as it does the biggest rainforest, the Forest Code, and a number of consolidated practices—is certainly the most legitimate nation to claim a sizable share of these $100 billion. Our work is to create a legal mechanism with the Paris Agreement and the national legislation to have this funding flow into the country no later than next year,” the minister argued.

Salles stressed that Brazil deserved to be rewarded for the “good conservation service” it provides to the world and said that such initiatives, once materialized, should reach farmers who preserve part of the vegetation and the natural resources of their properties intact, as the Brazilian environmental legislation mandates.

“We already have legal reserves in the Atlantic Forest, in the Cerrado, in the Amazon—all across the country. And rural producers, who have part of their properties frozen by a norm imposing the legal reserve, needs and deserves to be remunerated for it,” the minister added. He insisted that these funds must reach the hands of farmers and other major champions of environmental preservation, like riverside communities and indigenous peoples. This can be done in several ways, he pointed out, including payment for the preservation of a portion of the native vegetation in the rural properties.