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 today.
"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 ($720 million) to help back up domestic programs, it said. Norway promised Brazil up to $1.0 billion in 2008 to slow deforestation, depending on its performance.
Under a similar deal in 2010, Norway pledged up to $1 billion to Indonesia, which has the third-largest rainforest after the Amazon and Congo basins and has cleared large areas to make way for palm oil plantations.
Indonesia had made "good progress" in planning to protect forests, Norad said. But it said that "upcoming governmental change and weaknesses in the legal basis" for forest protection "present a serious risk that achievements may be lost".
So far, Indonesia has got 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 a fifth of all man-made emissions of greenhouse gases, according to U.N. estimates.
Cash promised by Norway accounts for more than 60 percent of all funds pledged by rich nations linking forests and climate change, the Norad report said. Norway's money has also gone to international agencies and nations such as Guyana and Tanzania.
PHOTO: The Xinane river runs through Ashaninka Indian territory in Brazil's northwestern Acre state, March 25, 2014.
CREDIT: REUTERS/LUNAE PARRACHO