Brazil’s Federal Government launches BRL 150 million public call for restoration of Indigenous lands

On Friday, April 11, Brazil’s Federal Government launched a public call for BRL 150 million in resources from the Amazon Fund (Fundo Amazônia) for the ecological restoration of approximately 137 Indigenous lands. This is the largest project of its kind in Brazil's history and covers the region of the Restoration Arch (Arco da Restauração) project, a critical deforestation area that stretches from the eastern state of Maranhão to the state of Acre.

Representatives of the institutions that are responsible for the public call presented the initiative to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Friday (11). These included the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social/BNDES) and the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (Ministério do Meio Ambiente e Mudança do Clima/MMA), in partnership with the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples (Ministério dos Povos Indígenas/MPI) and the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Fundação Nacional dos Povos Indígenas/FUNAI).

Over these two years, we have already reduced around 450 million tons of CO2; this allowed us to raise funds for the Amazon Fund that doubled its assets, with resources from Norway, Germany, the United Kingdom, and several other countries” 
Marina Silva,
Brazil’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change

The Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Marina Silva, emphasized that this public notice is in addition to other actions to transform the Arch of Deforestation (Arco do Desmatamento) into an Arc of Restoration, involving, in addition to Indigenous lands, several local communities and settlements. She also pointed out that all ongoing efforts to reduce deforestation result in a reduction in emissions, contributing to the raising of funds for the Amazon Fund.

“Over these two years we have already reduced around 450 million tons of CO₂; this allowed us to raise funds for the Amazon Fund that doubled its assets, with resources from Norway, Germany, the United Kingdom, and several other countries,” stated Marina Silva.

In April, the Amazon Fund also approved its first structured aid for the health of Indigenous peoples: the Health and Territory project (projeto Saúde e Território) worth BRL 31.7 million. With these additional initiatives, the Amazon Fund's support for Indigenous peoples has reached BRL 467 million.

The Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sonia Guajajara, highlighted that the areas in which the Federal Government is carrying out the eviction process — to remove invaders from territories traditionally occupied by Indigenous people — and those that have already been completed since 2010 will receive a higher score in defining the priorities of the new initiative. “It will be very important for us to come now with this resource to support these areas, and to be able to have some alternative for both restoration and income generation, reforestation, and direct support for the communities,” she explained.

It will be very important for us to come now with this resource to support these areas, and to be able to have some alternative for both restoration and income generation, reforestation and direct support for the communities” 
Sonia Guajajara,
Brazil’s Minister of Indigenous Peoples

INDIGENOUS APRIL — The initiative was launched at the 21st edition of the Acampamento Terra Livre (ATL) which is taking place this week in the federal capital Brasilia. Held annually since 2004, the ATL is considered the largest assembly of Indigenous peoples and organizations in the country. April 19 is Indigenous Peoples' Day in Brazil — a date dedicated to celebrating Indigenous culture and heritage.

FUNAI president Joênia Wapichana believes that the initiative represents a “great opportunity” for Indigenous peoples. “FUNAI helped to verify the importance of this opportunity: we, here, as a government, during these last two years, have been part of a collective action to recover Indigenous lands,” she declared.

THE CALL — The third call for proposals under the Restore Amazon (Restaura Amazônia) initiative allocates BRL 150 million to ecological restoration using native species and/or agroforestry systems (sistemas agroflorestais/SAFs), including agricultural production. By strengthening productive restoration in Indigenous Lands, the Federal Government is working to ensure that vegetation recovery is associated with income generation and improved socioeconomic conditions for families. Restaura Amazônia is one of the initiatives under the Restoration Arch, which aims to restore 6 million hectares of forest by 2030.

90 PROJECTS — Up to 90 projects of 50 to 200 hectares will be selected, with estimated values ​​between BRL 1.5 million and BRL 9 million, and with mandatory participation of indigenous people. The projects must be aligned with the National Policy for Territorial and Environmental Management of Indigenous Lands (Política Nacional de Gestão Territorial e Ambiental de Terras Indígenas) and with the management plans for Indigenous territories, and must comply with FUNAI regulations.

The states that will benefit are Acre, Amazonas, and Rondônia, in macro-region 1; Mato Grosso and Tocantins, in macro-region 2; and Pará and Maranhão, in macro-region 3. Each macro-region will receive approximately BRL 46 million, in addition to the resources that will be transferred to the three management partners already selected for each area: the Brazilian Institute of Municipal Administration (Instituto Brasileiro de Administração Municipal/Ibam), the Brazilian Foundation for Sustainable Development (Fundação Brasileira para o Desenvolvimento Sustentável/FBDS) and Conservation International of Brazil, respectively.

BNDES’s Socio-Environmental Director Tereza Campello emphasized the goal of ensuring that projects led by Indigenous people have priority, receiving higher scores in the competition. “The presence of Indigenous people among all bidders is mandatory,” she stressed.

TERM — Proposals will be accepted until July 19. They will be selected by a committee made up of representatives from the Ministry of the Environment, BNDES, MPI, and FUNAI.

The total project implementation period is 48 months: the first 24 months for implementation and the remaining 24 months for monitoring. BNDES will provide training workshops for potential applicants.

HEALTH — The first project to directly support Indigenous health launched by the Amazon Fund, Saúde e Território will be implemented by the Indigenous Work Center (Centro de Trabalho Indigenista) in partnership with the Ministry of Health’s Secretariat of Indigenous Health (Secretaria de Saúde Indígena/Sesai). The goal is to strengthen primary health care for the Timbira Indigenous communities of Maranhão and Tocantins.

The project also includes another unprecedented line of action, being the first support for the monitoring and territorial protection of Indigenous lands in other biomes, in line with the guidelines for support from the Amazon Fund in Brazil outside the Legal Amazon. In collaboration with the Guarani Yvyrupa Commission, Saúde e Território will also serve 19 Indigenous lands located in the Ribeira Valley of São Paulo and on the coast of Paraná, in the region of the Iguape-Cananéia-Paranaguá estuarine-lagoon complex — which contains the main stretches of high-integrity forest of the Atlantic Rainforest.

RESTORATION — Restaura Amazônia supports ecological and productive restoration projects, also selected through a public call, for the restoration of native forests in the most critical areas of deforestation in the Legal Amazon, called the Deforestation Arch. The initiative is part of the project to transform the area into the Restoration Arch, a partnership between MMA and BNDES, which aims to recover 6 million hectares by 2030.

To begin the Restoration Arch, in 2023 the Federal Government announced the allocation of BRL 1 billion, with BRL 450 million non-reimbursable from the Amazon Fund, earmarked for Restaura Amazônia. The Amazon Fund, coordinated by the MMA and managed by BNDES, is the largest global initiative for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+).

SERIES — The public call for reforestation on Indigenous lands is the third in a series of initiatives by Restaura Amazônia to rebuild the Amazon. In December of last year, an initiative was launched with a priority focus on restoration in conservation units, totaling BRL 92 million, with BRL 50 million in support from Petrobras.

The second series of calls for proposals for the selection of forest restoration projects focused primarily on agrarian reform settlements and was launched in March, aligned with the Productive Forests Program of the Ministry of Agrarian Development (Ministério do Desenvolvimento Agrário/MDA), and will have a total value of BRL 138 million in Amazon Fund resources.