RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Sunday, August 18th, president Jair Bolsonaro posted a video on social networks that shows a massacre of whales by hunters on an island in Denmark.
But the president attributes the scene to Norway, in a (failed) attempt to criticize the country that suspended donations to the Amazon Fund last week after a recent surge in Amazon deforestation.
The post includes a video and photographs of a spectacular whale hunt, where mammals in the shallow waters of a bay are slaughtered by people wading onshore, armed with hooked knives. The whales’ blood turns the waters red.
Images similar to the video shared by the president circulated on social networks last week, with descriptions attributing the content to Norway.
On Friday, August 16th, however, the Lupa Agency’s fact-finding service said that the scenes that show hunters trapping whales and attacking them with harpoons originate from a traditional practice in the Faroe Islands, an archipelago dependent on Denmark.
Bolsonaro uses the video to question Norway’s legitimacy in environmental issues, saying that the country sponsors the killing of whales. “Around forty percent of the Amazon Fund goes to NGOs, a refuge for many environmentalists. See the killing of whales sponsored by Norway,” he says in a Twitter post.
Norway is one of the few countries in the world that authorizes commercial whaling, but the whales are hunted individually, at sea from a ship, and with grenade-mounted harpoons.
“We can confirm that the video/the photos are not from Norway,” the Norwegian fisheries ministry told AFP in an e-mail. “Our whale hunt takes place from ships at sea,” it said, arguing that the Norwegian practice was “sustainable”.
Bolsonaro was ridiculed on social media for the mix-up: “Haha, what a stupid president Brazil has! This is NOT from Norway! We don’t kill whales like that. Do your homework to get respected! ‘Fake news’ as Trump would have said,” wrote one Twitter user.
“False information is a crime Mr. President,” wrote another.
Norway has been the single largest donor to the Amazon Fund for forest protection. Last week, Norway announced the suspension of 300 million Norwegian kroner (about R$130 million) in donations that would be made until the end of 2019 to the Amazon Fund, the most important forest preservation program.
The Norwegian Minister of Climate and Environment, Ola Elvestuen, attributes the decision to the Brazilian government’s breach of contract. Since the creation of the Amazon Fund eleven years ago, transfers from donor nations are linked to Brazil’s good results in containing deforestation in the Amazon.
The country is by far the primary donor to the Amazon Fund, accounting for 94 percent of donations, followed by Germany (five percent) and Petrobras (one percent).
Since 2008, the Fund has received more than R$3.4 billion (USD$850 million) in donations and has become the primary national instrument for funding actions to prevent, monitor and combat deforestation, in addition to promoting the conservation and sustainable use of the Amazon biome.
Its resources currently support 103 projects by state governments and civil society to protect the forest, including the Amazon Protected Areas program (Arpa). Aimed at the creation and management of Conservation Units (UCs), Arpa has 46 projects in the state of Amazonas alone.
The Norwegian decision occurs a few days after Germany decided to suspend the financial support given to forest conservation and biodiversity projects in the Amazon.
The German government will withhold a donation of 35 million euros, equivalent to more than R$151 million for the Amazon Fund. The country has already transferred R$193 million to the program.