Amazon Fund to contract new forest conservation projects

The Amazon Fund is sending out invitations for offers of projects on the conservation and sustainable use of the Amazon Forest with a focus on sustainable productive activities. Up to ten projects will be selected in the area known as Legal Amazon, which are to receive from $3.18 million to $9.53 million, adding up to $47.67 million.

“We wish to expand the base of projects and entities that may be financed by the Amazon Fund and invest more quickly and effectively,” said Marilene Ramos, director for public and socio-environmental management at the National Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES).

The fund is controlled by the BNDES in cooperation with the Environment Ministry, and fed with donations aiming to prevent, monitor, and fight deforestation, and promote the conservation and sustainable use of the forest. The eight-year-old fund has invested some $445 million in 89 projects in different segments and regions in the Legal Amazon, which comprises states covered by the Amazon Forest.

The projects to be presented should aim to strengthen economic activity in communities that may serve as guardians of the forest, such as traditional peoples and communities, riverside populations, families relocated after field reform measures, family agriculture initiatives, indigenous peoples, and quilombola communities living in the area.

These communities, the bank says, play a crucial role in the defense of the Amazon, as they work in a natural manner with the resources of social and biological forest  diversity, bringing income as well as economic and social development. The standing forest is of great value to these communities, as it is their source of livelihood.

Two other invitations are to be sent out by the fund this year—one of them aimed at promoting the restoration of degraded areas and help Brazil in its commitment with the Paris Agreement of restoring 12 million hectares of degraded forest by 2030.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira