Brazil created a fund this week that will raise money from developed nations for preserving the Amazon rainforest.
Environmentalists say the move is significant, because it is the first time the nation has officially recognized the link between conserving the rainforest and combating global climate change.
The fund aims to raise as much as $21 billion by 2021, according to an Associated Press story.
Deforestation in the Amazon releases an estimated 400 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmospher each year. About 20% of the Amazon rainforest has already been lost to loggers, ranching and farming–an area equal in size to Western Europe.
In related news, an Australian study determine that untouched natural forests, such as the Amazon, store 60% more carbon dioxide than planted forests–three times more that previously estimated, according to a Reuters Report.
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