Brazil allocates first funds under plan to save the Amazon
Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.comDecember 10, 2009
Summary:
The recipients include US$ 11 million for the Bolsa Floresta program, which compensates forest communities in the state of Amazonas for avoiding deforestation; Imazon (Instituto do Homem e Meio Ambiente da Amazônia), which will receive $5.5 million to create an environmental land registry and monitoring capabilities in the state of Pará; TNC Brasil, which will get $9.1 million to encourage wood producers, cattle ranchers and soy farmers in Pará and Mato Grosso to sign up for a land registry that promotes environmental stewardship; the Projeto Sementes do Portal; which will receive $3.1 million to develop reforestation projects on degraded lands in Mato Grosso; and the Fundo Brasileiro para a Biodiversidade, which will get $11.5 million to support the second phase of the Arpa Program responsible for establishing new protecting areas.
 Brazil's proposed targets for reducing deforestation: |
All together some $40 million will be allocated to the initiatives, or just over a third of the $110 million of the money raised from Norway for the Amazon Fund in 2009. Norway has committed 750 million krone (about US$ 125 million) for 2010 and up to one billion by 2016.
The Amazon Fund represents Brazil's effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation. As the world's top deforester over the past decade, forest loss accounts for more than 60 percent of Brazil's total CO2 emissions.
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