Amazon Fund

The Amazon Fund (in Portuguese: Fundo Amazônia) is an initiative created by the Brazilian Government and managed by the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES). It was established on 1 August 2008, with the aim of attracting donations for non-reimbursable investments in actions for the prevention, monitoring, and combat of deforestation, and for the promotion of conservation and sustainable use of the Amazon rainforest. Additionally, the fund supports the development of monitoring and control systems for deforestation in the rest of Brazil and in other tropical countries.

The fund is used in various areas, including the management of public forests and protected areas, control, monitoring and environmental enforcement, sustainable forest management, economic activities developed from the sustainable use of the forest, ecological and economic zoning, land planning and regularization, conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, and the recovery of deforested areas. The projects supported by the fund must be aligned with applicable public policies and the guidelines and criteria, in addition to demonstrating their direct or indirect contribution to the reduction of deforestation and forest degradation. The actions foreseen in the projects must be coherent with the proposed objective, with the budget and with the schedule of its implementation. Eligibility for accessing the Amazon Fund is determined based on compliance with several plans and criteria, including the PPCDAm (Action Plan for Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon Region), ENREDD+ (National Strategy for REDD+), state plans for preventing and combating deforestation, and BNDES Operational Policies. Projects eligible for funding should directly or indirectly contribute to reducing deforestation in the Amazon. Various types of entities can submit projects for funding, including public administration bodies, NGOs, private companies, cooperatives, and research institutions.

Until 2018, the fund received R$3.4 billion in donations, with the majority coming from Norway, followed by Germany and Petrobras. Since 2023, several countries announced contributions to the fund or interest in contributing, including Germany, Norway, the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Denmark, France, Spain, Japan and others.

Overview
The Amazon Fund, established in 2008 and operational since 2009, was primarily created to incentivize Brazil and other developing countries with tropical rainforests to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and forest degradation. The initiative was proposed by Brazil during the 12th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2008. The fund's establishment followed Brazil's commitment to significantly reduce deforestation in the Amazon biome over the next decade.

Since its creation, the Fund has supported more than 100 projects related to the management of public forests and protected areas, environmental control, monitoring and inspection, sustainable forest management, economic activities created with sustainable use of vegetation, ecological and economic zoning, arrangement territorial and agricultural regulation, preservation and sustainability, exploitation of biodiversity and recovery of deforested areas.

In 2019, during the Bolsonaro government, the then Environment Minister Ricardo Salles proposed alterations to the structure of the Amazon Fund, citing irregularities in its management. He suggested that the fund's resources should be used to compensate for land expropriations in conservation areas within the Amazon rainforest. Third sector institutions, along with Germany and Norway, opposed these changes. They argued that audits had not identified any irregularities in the fund's management or in the monitoring of deforestation impacts. They stated that 'enhancing the fund's efficiency, impact, and transparency' should be pursued 'within the existing governance framework'.

Also in 2019, German Environment Minister Svenja Schulze announced that, due to the increased deforestation in the Amazon region and concerns about the Jair Bolsonaro government, Germany would suspend investments of R$155 million in the Amazon Fund. On the 15th of August 2019, Norway decided to suspend disbursements of R$ million to the Amazon Fund.

In 2022, with the election of Lula, Norway and Germany announced that they were willing to resume financing of the Amazon Fund. In 2023, several countries announced contributions to the fund or interest in contributing, including Germany, Norway, the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Denmark, France, Spain and others.