The Amazon Fund was proposed by the Brazilian delegation to the 12th Conference of Parties in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2006, to provide an incentive for Brazil and other tropical-forested developing countries to continue and increase voluntary reductions of greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. Yet, despite the well-established crucial role of the Amazon in keeping carbon-dioxide levels in the earth in check , the world – not just Brazil – has lost support from the main contributors to the Fund – Norway and Germany. This is a major blow to the Fund and the implementation of the projects it supports.
For the past 11 years, Norway – the main donor to the Fund – has contributed a total of US$ 1.2 billion to the Fund while Germany has contributed a total of US$ 68 million. The Fund supports 103 projects across Brazil and other neighboring Latin American countries. Between 2004 (prior to the establishment of the Fund in 2008) to 2012, deforestation steeply declined by 80 percent. However, since 2012, deforestation started to rise again.
Without the Fund, projects such as Projecto Frutificar which supports production of açai and cacao by small-scale farmers, disseminates agroforestry systems to family farmers and indigenous communities) may simply be cancelled. If the global community of nations wants to sustain the progress that has been made protecting the Amazon, it must find a way to fund projects. It also has to remind itself of the Fund’s tagline: “Brazil protects it. The world supports it. Everybody wins”.
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