2023-08-08 01:40:04
© Reuters.
Created in 2008, the Amazon Fund, considered the main international initiative for reducing gas emissions and preserving the forest, completes 15 years of existence.
At a commemoration event, the president of the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), Aloizio Mercadante, highlighted that the initiative has brought great contributions to the conservation of the Amazon in 15 years, but defended greater engagement by rich countries.
“Rich countries need to look at the Amazon with much more responsibility than they have had so far. This example of Norway and Germany needed to be followed by other countries, with more substantive resources, because the territory is gigantic, the challenge ahead is immense”, said Mercadante, in Belém, where the Amazon Summit will take place, which will bring together heads of state of the Amazonian countries, starting this Tuesday (8).
Overcoming the problems faced by the Amazonian peoples involves promoting small industrial and rural production units, adding value to traditional products and adopting an economic model focused on keeping the forest standing.
“We need to build a prosperous Amazon, with progress, income, research and innovation. For that, we have to open opportunity for people, open funding and bring more international solidarity,” he said.
drop in deforestation
The director of the Norwegian International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI), Andreas Dahl Jørgensen, celebrated the 42.5% drop in deforestation alerts in the Amazon from January to July 2023.
According to him, the result is not a coincidence, but “strong policies and actions adopted by the Brazilian government” and by society. “It’s a huge effort and perhaps the best global news we’ve had this year,” he said.
All the states of the biome registered a reduction, with Amazonas having the highest percentage, 62%, according to data from the Deter-B system, from the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe).
The Norwegian representative cited the suspension of the fund, by the government of Jair Bolsonaro, as “a bad phase in every marriage”, and stated that the decision of the current government, of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, came to resume and reinforce ties partnership between Brazil and Norway in promoting sustainable development in the Amazon.
Along the same lines, the Parliamentary Secretary of State of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany, Niels Annen, guaranteed the continuity of German support for the fund in view of the good signs and commitment given by the Lula government.
Norway and Germany are among the main donors to the fund.
Amazon Fund
Managed by BNDES, the Amazon Fund has non-reimbursable resources to finance projects to prevent, monitor and combat deforestation, to promote conservation and the sustainable use of the Legal Amazon.
Since 2009, the fund has received R$ 3.3 billion in donations, 93.8% from Norway, 5.7% from Germany and 0.5% from Petrobras (BVMF:). The resources were used to support 102 projects. Among them, nine are aimed at traditional and indigenous communities.
In 2019, the then Minister of the Environment, Ricardo Salles, extinguished the two committees responsible for managing the Amazon Fund’s resources, making it impossible to finance projects and continue donations. According to BNDES data, Brazil stopped investing around BRL 3 billion in environmental actions between 2019 and 2022, an amount that remained retained in the fund after the dissolution of the committees.
In October 2022, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) determined that the Union take the necessary measures to reactivate the Amazon Fund. Among the first acts of the new mandate, President Lula reactivated the committees.
With the resumption of activities, the United States announced US$ 500 million for the fund; the British government, £80 million; and the European Union, 20 million euros.
In the new phase, the project analysis model was revised, as well as guidelines, so that the fund is “a promoter of medium and long-term socio-environmental transformation in the Amazon”. “Such action ranges from supporting actions to prevent, monitor and control deforestation and the degradation of native vegetation to promoting the conservation and sustainable use of the region, promoting the economic transition with a view to a cycle of prosperity based on a sustainable and lasting basis. to improve the condition and quality of life indicators of its population”, informs the BNDES.
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