Brazil’s Lula picks Amazon defender for environment minister

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Thursday named Amazon defender Marina Silva as environment minister for his incoming government, indicating he will prioritize cracking down on illegal deforestation in the forest even if it means running afoul of powerful agribusiness interests.

Both attended the recent U.N. climate conference in Egypt, where Lula promised cheering crowds “zero deforestation” in the Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest and a key to fighting climate change, by 2030. “There will be no climate security if the Amazon isn’t protected,” he said.

His choice of Silva underscores that commitment — but the contentious pick may undermine his prospects for governability, given many agribusiness players and associated lawmakers resent her. The resentment stems from her time as environment minister during most of Lula’s last presidency, from 2003 to 2010.

Lula also appointed Carlos Fávaro, a soybean producer, as minister of agriculture and Sonia Guajajara as Brazil’s first minister of Indigenous peoples.

Silva was born in the Amazon and worked as a rubber tapper as an adolescent. As environment minister she oversaw the creation of dozens of conservation areas and a sophisticated strategy against deforestation with major operations against environmental criminals and new satellite surveillance. She also helped design the largest international effort to preserve the rainforest, the mostly Norway-backed Amazon Fund. Deforestation dropped dramatically.

But Lula and Silva fell out as he began catering to farmers during his second term and Silva resigned in 2008.

Lula appears to have convinced her that he has changed tack, and she joined his campaign after he embraced her proposals for preservation. In her own appearance at the U.N. summit, Silva said Lula’s administration would protect forests and lead the way in fighting climate change.

“Brazil will return to the protagonist role it previously had when it comes to climate, to biodiversity,” Silva told reporters at the summit.

That would be a sharp turnabout from Bolsonaro, who pushed for development in the Amazon and whose environment minister resigned after national police began investigating whether he was aiding the export of illegally cut timber.

Bolsonaro froze the creation of protected areas, weakened environmental agencies and placed forest management under control of the agriculture ministry. He also championed…