Brazil’s ‘water farms’ last hope to fight drought and ensure sustainability Coopercuc is one of several women-led co-operatives aiming to help increase the number of trees while also providing a livelihood for the people living there 25 April 2021 - 09:07 Fabio Zuker Picture: SUPPLIED
Sao Paulo When a TV crew visited Denise Cardoso’s farm in northeastern Brazil, she and her grandfather cut open the chunky roots of an umbu tree to show how it stores water, even during drought.
The natural process they were demonstrating on that day four years ago normally guarantees the tree’s survival in the semi-arid climate of the Caatinga, a biome that covers more than 10% of Brazil s territory.
Sao Paulo, Brazil – Brazil’s government wants billions of dollars upfront from the United States and other wealthy nations to protect its Amazon rainforest, a crucial natural bulwark in the fight against climate change.
But Indigenous leaders, climate activists and a group of US Democratic senators have warned US President Joe Biden not to hand over any cash to the government of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s far-right populist president, under whom deforestation has soared.
“The current Brazilian government is simply not to be trusted,” Sonia Guajajara, coordinator of Brazil’s Articulation of Indigenous Peoples (APIB), an Indigenous advocacy collective, told Al Jazeera.
Biden in Risky Talks to Pay Brazil to Save Amazon Activists fear billion-dollar climate deal will bolster Bolsonaro and reward illegal forest clearance, but US says action can’t wait.
April 13, 2021
The US is negotiating a multi-billion dollar climate deal with Brazil that observers fear could help the reelection of president Jair Bolsonaro and reward illegal forest clearance in the Amazon.
That is the concern of Indigenous groups, environmental campaigners and civil society activists, who say they are being shut out of the most important talks on the future of the rainforest since at least 1992.
An aerial photo shows the contrast between forest and agricultural landscapes near Rio Branco, Acre, Brazil. Brazil is asking for a billion dollars every 12 months in return for which forest clearance would be reduced by 30 to 40 percent. Photo by Kate Evans/CIFOR.
The US is negotiating a multi-billion dollar climate deal with Brazil that observers fear could help the reelection of president Jair Bolsonaro and reward illegal forest clearance in the Amazon. That is the concern of indigenous groups, environmental campaigners and civil society activists, who say they are being shut out of the most important talks on the future of the rainforest since at least 1992. Senior US officials are holding weekly.