Merkel urges Brazil to protect Amazon rainforest

German Chancellor Angela Merkel described Brazil and its vast Amazon jungle on Thursday as the "key" to controlling world climate change.

"Brazil is the key to all goals related to the climate," she said in the capital Brasilia, ahead of talks with Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff.

Merkel was on a less-than-24-hour visit to Brazil that was focused on environmental issues, for which she said the biggest country and economy in Latin America bears a special responsibility.

Brazil has made a priority of stopping what was once runaway forest clearance for new agricultural lands in the Amazon rainforest. However, the rate of destruction has picked up again this year, according to NGOs that monitor the Amazon.

"We are very satisfied that there have been very ambitious developments concerning the stopping of deforestation," Merkel said.

The protection of the Amazon is not just vital to Brazil's climate policies but to the entire globe's, she added.
"It's also the key to maintaining biodiversity in the world, because Brazil is the richest country in the world concerning biodiversity. What gets destroyed here cannot be replaced," she said.

German government sources said that 550 million euros are being made available to Brazil to help its anti-deforestation and energy efficiency programs over the next two years.

The two countries have also agreed to a separate German-funded program for protection of certain areas in the Amazon.

With its giant but vulnerable forests, Brazil is a central player in world climate talks as governments negotiate ahead of a major UN summit in Paris later this year on how to reduce global warming.

In Brussels on Thursday, EU Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete urged Brazil, along with India, Indonesia, Argentina, and other big countries, to immediately submit targets for emissions reductions ahead of the summit.

In March, the European Union, the world's third biggest emitter, became one of the first blocs or countries to formally submit its pledge to the United Nations.

The second biggest polluter, the United States, and the biggest, China, have also submitted their pledges in the last few months.

- 'Expand trade' -

Meanwhile, Merkel was looking for something in return from Brazil, a huge emerging market which currently faces deepening economic problems but which is still seen by many as an important long-term trading partner.
German companies, including Volkswagen, BASF, Bayer and Thyssen-Krupp employ some 250,000 Brazilians. The Brazilian foreign ministry says that one of Merkel's main objectives was for German investors to take part in Rousseff's plan for $64 billion worth of infrastructure projects, launched earlier this year.

"We can expand our trade," she said. "The German companies want, and are ready, to invest more in Brazil."

The visit was something of a public relations boost for Rousseff, who is fighting for her political life, with some in Congress suggesting she be impeached and huge street rallies against her taking place nationwide last Sunday.