Norway confirmed this Wednesday (26) a new donation worth US$50 million to the Amazon Fund. At the current price, the amount is equivalent to around R$275 million. The country had committed to carrying out this transfer in December last year in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, during the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (COP28).
Confirmation occurred through the formalization of the donation agreement with the Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES). The signing took place during the Forum on Tropical Forests, an event being held in Oslo, the Norwegian capital.
The Amazon Fund aims to facilitate national and international support for projects for the conservation and sustainable use of forests in the Legal Amazon, a region that encompasses nine states: Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Mato Grosso, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima and Tocantins and part of Maranhão. It was created in 2008 through Decree 6,527, signed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, then in his second term.
BNDES is responsible for capturing and managing resources, and is also responsible for contracting and monitoring financed initiatives. The financial institution seeks to work in coordination with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. The guidelines for choosing projects are established by a Steering Committee (Cofa), made up of those appointed by the federal government and the nine state governments and representatives of civil society entities.
Since it was created, the Amazon Fund has supported 111 initiatives and disbursed R$1.57 billion. Norway is historically the largest donor, followed by Germany. In 2019, during Jair Bolsonaro’s government, both countries protested after the then Minister of the Environment, Ricardo Salles, carried out changes to the structure of the Amazon Fund. Later, they announced the suspension of transfers, taking into account the increase in deforestation in the Amazon Forest.
With the election of President Lula in 2022 for his third term and the reversal of changes in the governance structure of the Amazon Fund, both Norway and Germany donations resumed. Since last year, several other countries have also announced transfers, such as the United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland and Japan. In addition to foreign governments, there have been donations made by Petrobras, the last of which occurred in 2018.
According to BNDES, the first transfer from the Norwegian government to the Amazon Fund was made in 2013. “Since then, the country has remained the largest donor, with resources exceeding R$3 billion”, informs the institution in a note. Norway’s new donation was the second formalized in 2024. The first, in February of this year, was made by Japan, which transferred 411 million yen, equivalent to around R$14 million. It was the first Asian country to contribute to the Amazon Fund.
