BNDES launches notice to protect coral reefs – 04/10/2024 – Environment

The BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development) launched this Wednesday (10) a notice for projects to protect coral reefs in Brazil. Relying on private resources, the idea is to release up to R$60 million for the projects.

The bank will prioritize projects to improve the quality of waters that feed corals, combating exotic species and predatory fishing, tourism planning and mapping, maintenance, monitoring and protection of corals.

Brazil has the only coral reefs in the South Atlantic, concentrated mainly in the Northeast region. These are structures that are highly sensitive to changes in ocean conditions, such as warming waters or changes in currents.

“Corals work like canaries in the mine, they are the first to die in the event of warming”, compared the director of the National Climate Change Secretariat of the MMA (Ministry of the Environment), Ana Paula Prates.

The BNDES notice will focus on the preservation of reefs in an area that runs from the north of Espírito Santo to Maranhão, where the focus is the Parcel do Manuel Luis State Park, a large reef that could be impacted by oil exploration on the equatorial margin Brazilian.

Ibama (Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) has already denied licenses to Petrobras for wells near the park, in opinions in which it states that it considers oil activity in the Barreirinhas basin, on the coast of Maranhão, unfeasible.

The region is one of the oil sector’s main bets on the equatorial margin, next to the Foz do Amazonas basin, on the coast of Amapá. The pressure to explore the area should gain strength after the discovery announced by Petrobras this Tuesday (9) on the coast of Rio Grande do Norte.

The socio-environmental director of BNDES, Tereza Campello, said that the launch of the notice has no relation to the plans of the state-owned company and the government’s energy sector for the exploration of the equatorial margin.

“The chosen environment has nothing to do with the equatorial margin itself, it has to do with the guidance given by the MMA and our technical team on where the most relevant corals in Brazil are located,” he stated. Another priority area is the Abrolhos archipelago.

Also in focus are coral reefs today with an intense tourist flow, such as those on the coasts of the eastern margin of the Northeast. The BNDES estimates that the loss of coral reefs would cost Brazil losses of R$160 billion.

“Corals generate 30 million jobs in the world. Around 850 million people in the world either depend on or benefit directly from corals,” said Campello.

The notice will be open until the beginning of July and each winning project can receive up to R$5 million from BNDES, which will finance 50% of the estimated total — the rest must be done by private institutions or international organizations. The bank will contribute a total of R$30 million.

BNDES had already launched a similar initiative to preserve mangroves. Eight winners will receive R$47.3 million for actions to recover native vegetation in the North, Northeast, Southeast and South of Brazil. The project is carried out in partnership with Petrobras.

At the beginning of March, NOAA (American Atmospheric and Oceanic Agency) warned that the world is about to have the fourth mass coral bleaching event. The phenomenon, caused by excessive warming of the sea, could result in the death of large areas of tropical reefs, including parts of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Researchers in Australia have already detected mass deterioration in the Great Barrier in March, according to a government statement.