US cancels Brazilian debt for forest protection - Point Carbon article]

[Torry Kuswardono]

US cancels Brazilian debt for forest protection

Published: 13 Aug 2010 16:15 CET
www.pointcarbon.com


The US will erase $21 million of Brazil’s debt in exchange for protection of its rainforests.

The two countries yesterday signed a debt-for-nature agreement to reduce Brazil’s debt payments to the US over the next five years.

In return for the cancellation of its debt to the US, Brazil has committed to use the money it would have owed to support grants to protect its tropical rainforests.

The grants can support anti-deforestation initiatives in Brazil’s Atlantic rainforest, as well as its Caatinga and Cerrado ecosystems.

Those ecosystems cover 50 per cent of Brazil’s territory, the US State Department said in a press release.

Yesterday’s debt-for-nature agreement was made possible under the US Tropical Forest Conservation Act of 1998.

“It's an instrument that strengthens the bilateral cooperation, broadens the participation of actors and the supply of resources,” Brazilian Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira said in a statement.

The US has signed 15 other debt swaps under the Tropical Forest Conservation Act.

Other participating countries include: Bangladesh, Belize, Botswana, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Jamaica, Panama (two agreements), Paraguay, Peru (two agreements), and the Philippines.

“Over time, these debt-for-nature programmes will together generate more than $239 million to protect tropical forests around the world,” according to the State Department.

The US has pledged $1 billion in fast-start financing over the next three years specifically geared towards efforts to prevent global deforestation.

It is unclear whether the debt-for-nature swaps count toward that total.
 
By Valerie Volcovici – v...@pointcarbon.com

Washington DC

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