Norway pledges billions for rainforest preservation

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg discussed rainforest preservation just last week with his British counterpart Gordon Brown, who also promotes measures to preserve rainforests, the report said. It added that the proposal for Norway to fund rainforest preservation efforts came from both Friends of the Earth Norway and the Rainforest Foundation Norway and the opposition parties in the parliament included it in their negotiations for climate change measures. It remained unclear when the first funding allotment of the fund would be released, but opposition politicians from both the Conservative and the Liberal parties said they had fought hard for funding to begin next year, according to Aftenposten. The newspaper added that rainforest preservation is viewed as an important means of reducing carbon emissions, because it can halt the burning that often comes with deforestation. Some experts claim that stopping the destruction of the world’s rainforests is among the fastest, cheapest and most meaningful methods to reduce the amount of dangerous emissions into the atmosphere. (people.com.cn)