Under international pressure to reverse rampant rainforest destruction, Brazil’s government announced this month that it would implement a R$500 million (US$94 million) program of environmental-services payments to boost native forest protection and restoration in the country’s Amazon region. The program is Floresta+, an initiative being underwritten by the UN-backed Green Climate Fund (GCF), a global financing mechanism that developing countries use to address climate change. Though the government of Jair Bolsonaro claimed in this month’s announcement that it had “instituted” the program, Floresta+ actually was created by the government of Bolsonaro’s predecessor, Michel Temer, in 2018, but had not yet been implemented. A July 2 directive by Environment Minister Ricardo Salles formalized the current government’s commitment to execute the program. When the Temer administration annouced Floresta+, it only provided the barebones proposal that it had sent to the South Korea-based GCF. The six-year plan... [Log in to read more]