Lula vows to protect the Amazon after era of destruction

The politician tipped to become Brazil's new environment minister has paid tribute to the murdered British journalist Dom Phillips and said Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's incoming government will battle to honour the memory of the rainforest martyrs killed trying to safeguard the Amazon.

- Tom Phillips

Speaking after Lula's historic election victory last Sunday, Marina Silva said Brazil had the chance to build "a new democratic ecosystem" in which conservation and the climate crisis will take centre stage after Jair Bolsonaro's era of Amazon destruction.

"It's sad to know that many people who fought for this moment are no longer here. That is what lies behind this great effort to honour them," said Silva, an Amazon-born environmentalist who was Lula's environment minister from 2003 until 2008 and was recently elected to congress.

Silva paid tribute to Phillips and the Brazilian Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, who were killed in the Amazon in June - a crime that exposed the environmental catastrophe playing out under Bolsonaro.

"This is a long-running struggle and lamentably Chico Mendes, Sister Dorothy [Stang], Dom Phillips, Bruno and all those who have fallen as part of this struggle [are no longer with us]," said Silva.

In his first speech as president-elect, Lula pledged to make the environment one of his government's top priorities, telling journalists: "We are going to fight for zero deforestation in the Amazon." Lula, who managed to reduce deforestation dramatically during his two-term government, said Brazil would retake a lead role in the fight against the climate crisis and that he was open to international collaboration to protect its environment.