The Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Marina Silva (Rede), is optimistic about the funding possibilities to increase the resources of the Amazon Fund by more than ten times.
“I don’t like to put a number. We want to expand the fund and we will make an effort to raise more. Why am I going to limit it to US$ 10 billion? Sheet at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The estimate of tenfold the fund created in 2008 with US$ 1.2 billion donated by Norway and Germany is by Carlos Nobre, one of the Brazilian scientists with greater international transit, also present at the event in Switzerland.
“The goal of reaching US$ 10 billion in donations for the Amazon Fund is totally feasible”, evaluates the climatologist and professor at USP (University of São Paulo). “This is the minimum investment volume we need to save the Amazon and build a new standing forest bioeconomy.”
As the climate emergency has become one of the central themes in Davos, where important global leaders are meeting until Friday (20), the meeting is seen as a great opportunity to prospect for resources for the Amazon Fund.
On Tuesday (17), with the support of 45 partners, the World Economic Forum launched Giving to Amplify Earth Action (GAEA), a global initiative to fund and develop new and existing public, private and philanthropic partnerships to help unlock the $3 trillion in funding needed to halt the impending environmental disaster and restore biodiversity by 2050.
“The potential for expanding the fund is very large. At the moment, we are identifying several partners and prospecting ways to expand these contributions through private initiative, philanthropy and governments”, stated the minister.
“We have to have a certain agility, because there is a great sensitivity and it is good that this desire to contribute is welcomed by our ability to present the agreements for these donations.”
She mentions the Leonardo Di Caprio Foundation, which plans to raise US$ 100 million for environmental protection in Brazil, as well as the Bezos Foundation, which bears the name of the founder of Amazon.
“During dinner with WWF, I could already see other partners interested in helping the Amazon Fund, which is successful, disruptive and has become the right address for cooperation with Brazil.”
The minister is in a marathon of bilateral meetings with potential investors from the private sector, governments and philanthropists.
Created with the aim of reducing carbon emissions and combating deforestation in the Amazon, the Amazon Fund can also be used exceptionally for emergency situations, such as helping to control crime in the region, threatened by mining and illegal logging.
“The fund has the possibility, indeed, of being used on an emergency basis for inspection and combat and control actions, including in partnership with the Federal Police”, said Marina.
The minister claims, however, that when the Amazon Fund was created it was not to be used to replace federal government contributions to fulfill its obligation. “But as the Bolsonaro government subtracted resources and we are starting the year without the necessary support, we are going to use these resources for a while on an emergency basis for command and control actions.”
Nobre also defends that the money from the fund can be used for operational activities such as inspection and strengthening of the work of Ibama and the Federal Police.
In 2015, the Temer government got BRL 150 million from the Amazon Fund for this purpose. “In 2023, it is first necessary to attack what is happening in the Amazon, to combat all illegality. This is something initial, which has to happen this year, in a very effective way”, says Nobre.
“It takes a lot of investment and the total presence of the State, which has a high cost. Logically, afterwards, deforestation will reduce.”
From there, argues the scientist, the conditions are created to place the focus of investment on large restoration projects in the Amazon, both reforestation and natural regeneration. The initial calculation is that it would take about US$ 20 billion to restore more than 50 million hectares of forest.
“We want the Amazon Fund to be used more and more for the development of scientific research, for projects within communities, for sustainable base investments in the field of tourism and bioeconomy”, emphasizes Marina.
Several panels in Davos alert to the fact that the energy crises and the increase in the cost of living due to the War in Ukraine put into play the ambition of directing the planet to a warming path of 1.5°C.
“We are at a critical point in our efforts to get the planet back on track to meet our climate ambitions,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Chief Executive of the World Economic Forum.
To achieve the speed and scale necessary to save the Earth, Schwab understands that not only private capital and government funds must be unlocked, but also the philanthropic sector, “as a truly catalytic force to achieve the necessary acceleration.”
The Planeta em Transe project is supported by the Open Society Foundations.
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