Brazil to create $900 mn Amazon development fund

BRASILIA: Brazil hopes to collect US$900 million in international contributions for a fund to finance protection and sustainable development in the Amazon.

Environment Minister Carlos Minc says President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will on Aug. 1 sign a decree creating the fund to complement enforcement efforts to curtail growing destruction of the world's largest remaining tropical wilderness.

Minc said Thursday that Silva will also sign an agreement with banks to deny credit to those caught committing environmental crimes.

Recently, Norway has offered US$100 million to help protect the Amazon, but such offers have stirred fears that foreign powers would then be able to dictate what Brazil does with the rain forest.