As scientists warn Brazil’s rainforest is nearing a point of irreversible decline, Lula makes ambitious deforestation pledge Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has said he will double efforts to protect the Amazon if re-elected this month. He has pledged to turn an area equivalent to the size of Italy into a forest reserve if re-elected.
Lula speaks to the press at a press conference in Brasilia, November 13, 2012.
DURANGO, Colombia — Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said today that he would double Brazil’s forest protection to nearly a quarter of its territory if re-elected in October.
“Brazil is more than capable of being a responsible world citizen and can turn the world’s savannas into vast forests thanks to the enormous social movements that exist here, in the cities and the villages,” Lula said at a press conference in Durango, a city located in the central plateau of Mexico.
Bolsonaro says ‘policing is murder’ Brazil’s far right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, currently the frontrunner, has taken to Twitter to lash out at an apparent death threat he is receiving and have suggested he would be better off without security.
The Brazilian president, in the middle of an election campaign, was speaking at a press conference in the city hosting a major anti-capitalist and environmental protests. The press conference was supposed to be an opportunity for Lula to speak about what the government has been doing for the environment, but Bolsonaro’s presence made it difficult to hear about what the president was saying.
Bolsonaro’s main rivals are seeking to capitalize on the controversy caused by the candidate’s remarks on the “policing of the streets” and his insinuation that the army is a threat to democracy.
Lula’s election campaign has been marked by promises to create new forests to provide a buffer against climate change, while Bolsonaro