Brazil and US exchange debt for forest protection

The governments of Brazil and the United States signed an agreement yesterday in which Brazil will use $21 million that it owes the US Agency for International Development (USAID) for environmental protection projects in Brazil. Specifically, the money will be employed over the next five years (between now and 2015) in conserving biomass in the Atlantic Rainforest, Savannah and Semi-Arid (“Mata Atlantica, Cerrado and Caatinga”) regions of Brazil under terms of US legislation known as the Tropical Forest Conservation Law (TFCA). The TCFA was enacted in 1998 and this is the first time it has been used in Brazil (the US has 16 other TFCA agreements around the world).