Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest the forest is still shrinking.<ref name="INPE/Prods satellite data"> INPE figures August to July.</ref> Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg announced on September 16, 2008, that Norway's government would donate US $1 billion to the newly established Amazon fund. The money from this fund would go to projects aimed at slowing down the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. In September 2015, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff told the United Nations that Brazil had effectively reduced the rate of deforestation in the Amazon by 82 percent. She also announced that over the next 15 years, Brazil aimed to eliminate illegal deforestation, restore and reforest
Rainforest Band the Amazon", chronicling Saunders’ trip to the Amazonian rainforest and showcasing the issue of rainforest destruction. After a nearly ten-year period in which Muruga and Shakti Booker had broken from the band, a reunion took place between Merl Saunders and Muruga and Shakti Booker at the Starwood Festival in 2000. This appearance was to be the launching point of a new tour starting at Nelson's Ledges Quarry Park in 2002; however, it was to be the last performance of the Rainforest Band with Merl Saunders. Merl’s health declined, and he suffered a stroke in 2002, and never performed in this