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The WWF-US Emergency Amazon Fire Fund raised approximately $1.5 million to provide firefighting equipment, medical supplies, and food to local civil society organizations and Indigenous peoples in Brazil and Bolivia following the 2019 fire season. The report highlights a vicious cycle where deforestation and climate change intensify droughts, increasing fire risks and reducing the Amazon's capacity to act as a carbon sink. In Brazil, the fund supported the Victoria Amazon Foundation in the Amazonas region to train brigades and conduct prevention workshops. In Bolivia, the fund provided critical water, food, and medical supplies to remote communities in the Santa Cruz and Chiquitano Dry Forest regions, where fires impacted over 5 million acres of forest and displaced families.

The document analyzes how 'jabuti' amendments to MP 901/2019 seek to lower the native vegetation coverage requirement from 80% to 50% in Roraima and Amapá by easing the conditions for Legal Reserve reductions and including non-environmental areas in the 65% territory threshold. It also warns that a proposal to reduce over 4,000 hectares of the Roraima National Forest is unconstitutional based on STF precedent.

The interim evaluation of the PROAmazonía project in Ecuador shows a mixed progress record as of December 2019. While the project is highly aligned with national policies and has made significant strides in land-use planning (Component 1) and REDD+ operational instruments (Component 4), it has struggled with the implementation of financial incentives and sustainable production transitions (Component 2). Budget execution stands at 31% (US$ 12,939,253 of US$ 41,172,739), hampered by high staff turnover and bureaucratic delays in ministerial approvals. Sustainability is rated as moderately likely, threatened by Ecuador's fiscal adjustment plan and political instability, though the project has successfully integrated gender strategies and established critical territorial coordination platforms.

The document analyzes the 2019 Amazon fires as a result of corporate power and the expansion of the agricultural frontier, specifically linked to the interests of transnational corporations (TNCs). It contends that the EU-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement will exacerbate this trend by increasing demand for commodities like soy and beef, leading to further deforestation and human rights violations. The report criticizes the Bolsonaro administration for dismantling environmental protections and argues that the agreement's environmental clauses are non-binding and insufficient to prevent climate catastrophe.

The open letter calls on nine Multilateral Development Banks to accelerate their commitment to the Paris Agreement by ending all assistance for oil, gas, and coal projects after 2020. It demands a rapid scale-up of investments in renewables and energy efficiency, specifically targeting universal energy access by 2030 and allocating at least 50% of finance to climate by 2025. The letter emphasizes the need for transparent reporting on portfolio emissions and the development of just transition plans for workers and communities.

The document argues that 20th-century infrastructure paradigms are ill-suited for 21st-century climate extremes and that current 'sustainable' infrastructure efforts focus too heavily on low-carbon goals while neglecting nature-based resilience. It highlights a critical gap in 'upstream' strategic planning, where natural capital is often ignored until the project approval stage. Through case studies in Mozambique, Mexico, Myanmar, and South Africa, the report demonstrates the value of integrating ecosystem services and climate scenarios into land-use planning. It introduces the 'Visioning Futures' framework, which emphasizes defining spatial scope, identifying future objectives, and performing sensitivity testing under various climate scenarios to avoid environmental risks and optimize infrastructure siting.

The document highlights the success of Brazil's monitoring and enforcement strategy, specifically the DETER system, in reducing Amazon deforestation. It provides evidence that these measures avoided significant forest loss between 2007 and 2016 without harming agricultural productivity. The brief warns that proposed budget cuts to these systems could lead to a 45% increase in deforestation and urges the federal government to restore financial and institutional support.

The policy brief highlights the success of Brazil's DETER satellite monitoring system and IBAMA's law enforcement in reducing Amazon deforestation. It argues that these tools are cost-effective, do not harm agricultural production, and are essential for meeting emission reduction goals, warning that proposed budget cuts to these services could significantly increase forest loss.

The document argues that cattle productivity in Brazil is inversely related to the share of farmland devoted to pastures, meaning productivity increases as ranch size declines. It identifies land values as a key driver of this relationship, noting that higher land costs incentivize more intensive ranching or a switch to crop cultivation. The authors suggest that combating illegal deforestation, reducing agricultural modernization bottlenecks, and improving access to credit can drive cattle intensification and reduce pressure on forests.

The document analyzes the inverse correlation between the size of pasture areas and livestock productivity in Brazil. It argues that low productivity is driven by land-use inefficiencies and economic incentives, such as low land costs relative to capital. The authors suggest that combating illegal deforestation, reducing agricultural modernization bottlenecks, and improving credit access can incentivize the transition to more intensive livestock production or high-productivity agriculture, thereby reducing pressure on the Amazon and Cerrado biomes.

The study finds that environmental monitoring and law enforcement effectively reduced deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Using DETER cloud coverage as an instrumental variable to address endogeneity, the authors estimate that reducing monitoring and law enforcement by half would increase municipal deforestation by approximately 44%. The analysis indicates that these efforts did not cause deforestation to leak into neighboring areas and did not negatively impact local agricultural production; in fact, agricultural outcomes improved. A cost-benefit analysis suggests the strategy was cost-effective, with a break-even price of USD 0.69/tCO2, significantly below prevailing carbon prices.

The 'Sustainable Infrastructure in the Amazon' project, running from July 2019 to December 2020, aims to strengthen socio-environmental criteria in the decision-making process for infrastructure projects. It combines economic analysis via a market access tool with regulatory and governance analysis to identify the most effective stages of a project's life cycle for incorporating socio-environmental variables, specifically targeting the feasibility study phase to reduce impacts during implementation.

The 'Sustainable Infrastructure in the Amazon' project, running from July 2019 to December 2020, aims to improve the quality of infrastructure in Brazil by incorporating social and environmental risk assessments into the decision-making process. The initiative specifically targets the feasibility study phase as the optimal time to anticipate these risks to ensure more robust and sustainable project implementation. The project employs a dual approach consisting of economic analysis and regulatory/governance analysis to develop evidence-based proposals for the Brazilian government.

The research analyzes the relationship between satellite-based law enforcement (DETER) and the growth of secondary vegetation in the Brazilian Amazon from 2004 to 2014. It finds that increased enforcement in a cell's neighborhood significantly increases the probability and area of forest regeneration, supporting a 'deterrence channel' where illegal land use is abandoned. The study suggests that improving monitoring systems to detect secondary vegetation could further increase forest cover.

The briefing outlines three critical objectives for national leaders at the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit to align global efforts with the 1.5 degrees C warming limit. First, leaders are urged to pledge net-zero emissions by 2050, following examples like Suriname and Bhutan. Second, they must prepare to submit more ambitious nationally determined contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement in 2020. Third, the document calls for a shift from 'brown' to 'green' financing, specifically halting coal plant funding and increasing contributions to the Green Climate Fund to support developing nations. The text emphasizes that investing $1.8 trillion in climate resilience from 2020 to 2030 could yield $7.1 trillion in net benefits.

Friends of the Earth International asserts that the record-breaking fires in the Amazon, particularly in Brazil, are caused by agribusiness, mining, and logging interests supported by President Jair Bolsonaro's administration. The statement highlights a massive increase in fire detections and deforestation rates, attributing these trends to the dismantling of environmental protections and the suppression of indigenous land rights. It calls for international condemnation of these policies and criticizes the European Union for pursuing a trade agreement with MERCOSUR despite this environmental devastation.

Friends of the Earth International denounces the 2019 Amazon fires, attributing them to the Brazilian government's dismantling of environmental protections to benefit agro-industry and mining. The statement highlights a record increase in fires and deforestation, the persecution of indigenous peoples, and the global climate implications of the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

Friends of the Earth International asserts that the 2019 Amazon wildfires, particularly in Brazil, are the result of agribusiness, mining, and timber expansion facilitated by President Jair Bolsonaro's government. The organization highlights a significant increase in fires and deforestation, the dismantling of climate laws, and the persecution of Indigenous Peoples and environmental defenders. It calls for international condemnation of these policies and criticizes the European Union's pursuit of a trade agreement with MERCOSUR amidst this environmental devastation.

Over 340 civil society organisations have called on the European Union to stop trade negotiations with the Mercosur bloc, citing a surge in human rights violations and environmental degradation in Brazil since the inauguration of President Jair Bolsonaro in January 2019. The signatories argue that the EU, as Brazil's second-largest trading partner, must use its leverage to demand an end to deforestation and the fulfillment of Paris Agreement commitments before proceeding with any trade deal.

In remarks delivered at the Covering Climate Now conference, Bill Moyers critiques the failure of major US news networks to adequately cover global warming and calls for a new era of courageous, connected reporting. He highlights a historical missed opportunity in 1965 when the US government first officially recognized the threat of CO2, and urges current journalists to act as a moral authority to shift public opinion and drive the 'acceptance of responsibility' needed to implement available climate solutions.