Mar 11, 2015

• Project will provide support to the Environmental Operations Company of the National Public Security Force. The contract was signed on March 11

On March 11, the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) signed a R$ 30.6 million contract for non-reimbursable resources from the Amazon Fund to provide physical and operational support to the Environmental Operations Company, part of the National Public Security Force of the Ministry of Justice.

The contract was signed in Brasilia by the BNDES’ President, Luciano Coutinho, and the Minister of the Environment, Izabella Teixeira, and the Minister of Justice, José Eduardo Cardozo.

The goal is to strengthen territorial control and the presence of the State in priority areas to fight illegal deforestation in the Amazon biome, providing support for environmental supervision efforts developed by federal, state and local agencies.

The project will focus on the acquisition of machinery, equipment and inputs to be distributed to Ibama’s support bases inside the biome, which comprises the states of Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima and Tocantins.

Financial support will also equip and ensure the permanence of 200 employees from the National Public Security Force in the Amazon, thus providing logistics support for efforts to combat illegal deforestation and improving the safety of supervision teams and other partners in the field.

Given its territorial reach, the project has the potential to benefit approximately 20 million people living in the Brazilian part of this biome, according to data from IBE’s Census in 2010.

About the Amazon Fund – With this operation, the Amazon Fund, managed by the BNDES, reached the milestone of 72 supported projects and exceeded R$ 1 billion in approved operations.

The Fund is an initiative from the federal government, coordinated by the Ministry of the Environment, and receives donations for non-reimbursable investments in efforts to prevent, monitor and combat deforestation, as well as promoting the sustainable use of the forest.

Efforts are accompanied by the Guidance Committee of the Amazon Fund (COFA) – comprising the federal government, state governments and civil society – which is in charge of establishing guidelines and verifying results, as well as the Technical Committee, appointed by the Ministry of the Environment, which verifies emissions caused by deforestation in the Amazon.

So far, the main donators to the Fund have been the Norwegian Government and the German development bank, KfW. Projects that receive support are submitted by public agencies (either federal, state or local) and/or third parties (NGOs, associations etc.) with proven managerial capacity to implement them.

Among the initiatives already receiving resources are: the implementation of the National Forest Inventory, Implementation of the Deforestation Detection System in the Amazon, and structuring the National Center for Combating and Preventing Forest Fires.