In the Battle Against Amazon Deforestation, Brazil Offers Cash Rewards to Municipalities

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) In a bid to slow deforestation in the Amazon, Brazil announced Tuesday that it will provide financial support to municipalities that have reduced deforestation rates the most.

During the countrys Amazon Day, President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva also signed the creation of two Indigenous territories that total 207,000 hectares (511,000 acres) over two times the size of New York City and of a network of conservation areas next to the Yanonami Indigenous Territory to act as a buffer against invaders, mostly illegal gold miners.

The Amazon is in a hurry to survive the devastation caused by those few people who refuse to see the future, who in a few years cut down, burned, and polluted what nature took millennia to create, Lula said during a ceremony in Brasilia. The Amazon is in a hurry to continue doing what it has always done, to be essential for life on Earth.

The new program will invest up to $120 million in technical assistance. The money will be allocated based on the municipalitys performance in reducing deforestation and fires, as measured by official satellite monitoring. A list of municipalities eligible for the funds will be published annually.