Fall
in deforestation enhances the donation of resources to the
Amazon Fund
02/12/2009
- The Technical Committee of the Amazon Fund met on Tuesday
(December 1), at the Brazilian Forest Service (SFB), in
Brasília, to attest to the reduction in the emissions
of greenhouse gases resulting from reductions in deforestation
in 2008.
The
drop in deforestation in 2008 provided the Fund with a balance
of 245 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (an amount that
were not released in the atmosphere) and with potential
to capture US$ 1.2 billion in donations. "The fund
turns the reduction of deforestation on a system to finance
the conservation and sustainable use of the Amazon",
says Marco Conde, an executive from SFB.
Deforestation
in 2008 was 1.29 million hectares, 34% less than the reference
used in the calculations, which is 1.96 million hectares,
according to the average of deforestation in the Amazon
between 1996 and 2005.
The
Committee's report has a fundamental role in raising revenue
for the Fund, because the smaller the amount of gases that
cause global warming being released into the atmosphere
is, the greater the amount of resources which can be received
in donations. The avoided emissions of gases equivalent
to each tonne of carbon dioxide result in the capture of
five dollars.
The
Amazon Fund has already received US$ 100 million from the
Norwegian government, which pledged to donate US$ 1 billion
by 2015. Resources can be accessed by civil society organizations,
government and companies - and are not refundable, ie, don't
need to be returned.
Until
now, 38 projects have been submitted to the Fund and are
in different stages of evaluation by the Brazilian Development
Bank (BNDES), manager of the Amazon Fund. Most of them,
42%, are from civil society organizations, 18% are from
state governments, 18% of private companies, 16% of municipal
governments, 3% of the federal government and other 3% from
public enterprises in association with mixed economy companies.
The
Technical Committee of the Amazon Fund is composed of five
experts appointed by the Brazilian Forum on Climate Change:
Carlos Nobre, from the National Institute for Space Research
(Inpe); Adalberto Val, from the Institute for Amazonian
Research (Inpa); Paulo Moutinho, from the Amazon Environmental
Research Institute (Ipam); Christiano Campos, from Cenepa/Petrobras;
and Adalberto Verissimo, from the Amazon Institute of People
and the Environment (Imazon).
Do
Ministério do Meio Ambiente
