Apr 5, 2018

 The document was signed in a ceremony this Thursday, 5, in Brasília 

 Resources from the Amazon Fund will ensure logistical support to surveillance actions in the Legal Amazon

The Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) this Thursday, 5, at the headquarters of the Ministry of the Environment (MMA), in Brasília, signed a funding contract worth R$ 140.3 million with the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and of Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA). The resources are the Amazon Funds, coordinated by MMA and managed by BNDES, and will support IBAMA’s activities of environmental surveillance and deforestation control in the Amazon for 36 months, as of May 2018. 

BNDES’s Public and Socioenvironmental Management Director, Marilene Ramos, the Minister of the Environment, Sarney Filho, and the president of IBAMA, Suely Araújo, participated in the signing ceremony. The Amazon Fund’s resources will be used in the financing of means of transport to carry out in-field surveillance activities in the Amazon region, as well as for the renting of 4x4 pick-up trucks and chartering of helicopters. 

The supported activities will be concentrated on the regions which suffer greater pressure from deforestation, according to warnings issued by the System of Real-Time Detection of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon (DETER), of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), among others.

Continuity – The contract signed Thursday ensures the continued support of the Amazon Fund to IBAMA’s activities for surveillance and control of deforestation in the Legal Amazon. At the end of 2016, a first contract with the same goal had already been signed between BNDES and the Ministry of the Environment. Valued at R$ 56.3 million and with a 15-month term, this funding enabled the realization of more than 460 surveillance actions and resulted in the application of more than 5,000 violation notices by the end of 2017. The period of application of the resources coincided with a 16% reduction in deforestation in the Amazon after two straight years of increase.