Amazon Fund approves its first three projects on the eve of COP-15

04/12/2009 - The Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) announced at a meeting of the Amazon Fund Guidance Committee (COFA), on Thursday (December 3), in Belém (PA), the approval of the first three projects which will receive resources from the institution. Next week, the minister of the Environment, Carlos Minc, and the president of BNDES, Luciano Coutinho, will announce three other projects awarded.

One of the projects, called "Green Cities", is a proposal coordinated by the NGO Imazon, in association with other NGOs, which will receive R$ 12 million to be invested in various municipalities of Pará.

Another project is coordinated by the NGO The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and will receive R$ 16 million. In partnership with other environmental institutions, measures such as recovery of degraded areas will be taken, among other actions that promote environmental practices in the municipalities of Mato Grosso, including those located in the "arc of deforestation".

The third project is coordinated by the Amazonas Sustainable Foundation, of the state government of Amazonas, and will receive R$ 20 million. The financial resources received will be converted into payment for environmental services for the extractivist communities for the recovery of degraded areas, improvement of extractivist reserves and other activities that promote environmental conservation.

The Amazon Fund is managed by BNDES and has R$ 150 million for financing more projects to be approved in January and February 2010, from the total amount of R$ 1 billion that will be donated by Norway until 2015. The Fund's Guidance Committee is based in Belém and gathers representatives from state governments of the Legal Amazon, from the Brazilian federal government and from civil society organizations.

The Amazon Fund will have a stand in Copenhagen, at the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (COP-15), which begins next Monday (December 7).

Do Ministério do Meio Ambiente