The US ambassador to Brazil, Elizabeth Frawley Bagley, said this Wednesday (15th), during a press conference in Brasília, that the White House and the US Congress will define in the coming weeks the amount that will be contributed to the Amazon Fund. 
“The Amazon Fund, which we are now very happy to be a part of, the US Congress will make decisions and they will determine the exact amounts authorized. First, the White House, followed by the Senate, will work together to establish those exact amounts. In the coming weeks, this value will be announced”, he said.
Last week, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met, in Washington, with US President Joe Biden. After the meeting, the US government announced its intention to contribute to the fund.
The fund currently has resources of R$ 5.4 billion. Of these, R$ 1.8 billion were contracted and there are 14 projects from the 2018 Public Notice qualified to be approved.
The Amazon Fund aims to finance projects to reduce deforestation and monitor the biome. The funding mechanism had been deactivated in the past government and has now been reactivated following a decision by the Federal Supreme Court (STF).
Created in 2008, the fund receives donations from international institutions and governments to finance actions to prevent and combat deforestation in the Legal Amazon. In 2019, Germany and Norway suspended transfers to new projects after the Brazilian government, under the management of Jair Bolsonaro, presented suggestions for changing the application of resources and extinguishing collegiate bodies for managing the fund.
Yesterday (15) a meeting in Rio de Janeiro marked the reinstallation of the Guiding Committee of the Amazon Fund (Cofa), chaired by the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES). The committee had been standing still since 2018.
