Amazon Fund receives donations from Switzerland and USA – 10/03/2023 – Environment

The Amazon Fund, after a long period of shutdown and reactivation under the Lula (PT) government, once again received donations and, this time, from new entities. Switzerland, as it had already announced in July, will make an immediate contribution of around R$30 million. The USA also started its donations to the fund with a contribution of US$ 3 million (around just over 15 million, at current prices).

The BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development), responsible for managing the fund, announced this Tuesday (3) the approval of the contracts referring to the two donations.

The official contract for Switzerland’s donation will be signed this Wednesday (4), in Brasília, at Espaço Oscar Niemeyer, alongside the opening of an exhibition.

The Amazon Fund, in general, is intended for the sustainable development of the Amazon region, and its payments are linked to results in the fight against deforestation. The funds end up supporting projects on several fronts, such as firefighting, assistance with the purchase of equipment for local projects and even land regularization — they help, for example, to implement the CAR (Rural Environmental Registry).

The fund was paralyzed during almost the entire Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government due, initially, to accusations by then Environment Minister Ricardo Salles of alleged irregularities in the fund’s contracts — which, at the time, was already undergoing annual audits.

Subsequently, Salles began to openly declare that the government was trying to obtain greater decision-making power within the instrument, which did not please the fund’s donor countries and, consequently, halted the resumption talks.

The Amazon Fund’s donor countries until then had been Norway (majority donor) and Germany, in addition to donations from Petrobras.

In April this year, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, announced that the country intends to allocate US$500 million (R$2.5 billion) to the Amazon Fund over the next five years. The realization of this amount, however, requires approval from the American Congress.

A Sheet found that President Biden would have already managed to allocate US$3 million at this time by redirecting the budget of other international environmental programs that were already part of the approved budget and that would expire if they were not used by the end of the fiscal year, on September 30 .

The report sought the US State Department and communication from the US special envoy for climate, John Kerry, but received no response.

The BNDES announced, in a note, that this is the “first inflow of resources” from the contribution of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Other countries have also declared that they will make contributions to the fund.

In May, after meeting with President Lula, the United Kingdom committed to donating, according to the Brazilian government, around £80 million (R$500 million) to the Amazon Fund.

In August, on a visit to Brazil, the Danish Minister for Development Cooperation and Global Climate Policy, Dan Jørgensen, stated that Denmark intends to donate 20 million euros (more than R$105 million at current prices).

At the beginning of the year, the German government, already a donor, mentioned the amount of €31 million (R$172 million) for the Amazon Fund. In an interview with Sheetalso at the beginning of the year, Svenja Schulze, German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, spoke of €200 million (R$1.1 billion) for Brazil, an amount that would go beyond donations directed to the Amazon Fund.

Understand how the Amazon Fund can be used

The size of the fund

Since 2008, the Amazon Fund has raised more than R$3.39 billion in donations. The majority came from Norway, followed by Germany. Petrobras is the third donor and the only company to participate so far.

Where does the money go

The purpose of the fund is to raise money for projects to prevent, monitor and combat deforestation, in addition to conservation actions and sustainable use of the Amazon biome, but up to 20% of the resources can be used for other biomes.

Who receives

Projects can be proposed by federal and state governments, non-profit organizations, multilateral institutions and also by companies.

Governance

The fund is managed by BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development) together with two committees: a technical one, which certifies emissions data and calculations, and another advisor, with members of civil society, which defines criteria for the application of resources. .

Redd, a Brazilian acronym

The mechanism works in accordance with the parameters of Redd (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation), proposed by Brazil at the 2006 UN climate conference. The Amazon Fund became a reference for the definitions of safeguards of the global Redd mechanism, adopted in the following years.

Diplomatic exit

The fund seeks, simultaneously, to stimulate donors’ confidence in the effectiveness of the application of resources and to finance forests without generating carbon credits (a type of “right to pollute”). In the case of the Amazon Fund, carbon emission reductions are part of the Brazilian target of the Paris Agreement and are not sold as compensation to donors.