Brazil has made good progress in safeguarding the Amazon rainforest, but Indonesia’s plans for its forests could face setbacks under a new government, a report commissioned by top forest aid donor Norway said yesterday.
Norway, rich from offshore oil and gas, paid 10.3 billion crowns (US$1.7 billion) to slow tropical deforestation from 2008 to last year, according to the report by the state-funded Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad).
“Brazil’s deforestation rate and corresponding greenhouse gas emissions have strongly decreased,” the report said of progress in protecting the Amazon, the biggest tropical forest.
Projects funded by Norwegian cash in Brazil were “paving the way for future reductions,” it said.
Norway has paid Brazil 4.6 billion crowns to help back up domestic programs, it said.
Norway promised Brazil up to US$1 billion in 2008 to slow deforestation, depending on its performance.
Under a similar deal in 2010, Norway pledged up to US$1 billion to Indonesia, which has the third-largest rainforest after the Amazon and Congo basins, and has cleared large areas to to make way for palm oil plantations.
Indonesia had made “good progress” in planning to protect forests, the report said, but: “Upcoming governmental change and weaknesses in the legal basis” for forest protection “present a serious risk that achievements may be lost.”
“There could be new priorities,” said Ida Hellmark, who coordinated the report at Norad, pointing to risks of a further shift to palm oil plantations.
So far, Indonesia has so far received just 2 percent of Norway’s total payments, Norad said.
Forests soak up carbon dioxide as they grow and release it when they rot or burn. Deforestation, mainly to clear land for farms, accounts for up to about one-fifth of all man-made emissions of greenhouse gases, according to UN estimates.
Cash promised by Norway accounts for more than 60 percent of all funds pledged by rich nations linking forests and climate change, the report said.
Norway’s money has also gone to international agencies and nations such as Guyana and Tanzania.
Dag Hareide, head of environmental group Rainforest Foundation Norway, said Norway’s aid had helped put a focus on forest losses and climate change at a time when many donors were facing austerity at home. However, it could still do more, he said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in