Boost in investment to combat deforestation, restore degraded Amazon areas

Brazil’s ministries of Agrarian Development and Family Farming (Desenvolvimento Agrário e Agricultura Familiar / MDA) and Environment and Climate Change (Meio Ambiente e Mudança do Clima / MMA) alongside the National Institute of Colonisation and Agrarian Reform (Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária / INCRA), the National Agency for Technical Assistance and Rural Extension (Agência Nacional de Assistência Técnica e Extensão Rural / ANATER) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP launched a series of initiatives today (November 5) to strengthen and structure efforts to combat deforestation and wildfires, as well as to restore degraded areas in Amazon municipalities.

The MDA, MMA, ANATER, and INCRA have signed a Technical Cooperation Agreement to tackle deforestation and forest fires in 70 priority municipalities targeted for deforestation control. This partnership will drive initiatives for environmental and land regularization, alongside providing technical assistance, with an investment of approximately BRL 600 million. The project is currently under review by the Amazon Fund.

According to Minister Paulo Teixeira, this is a fundamental global issue, especially for those living in the Amazon. “It is essential to change the economic logic of that region, moving from a predatory logic to a more sustainable one. This will only happen through dialogue with the farmers who live off that economy. We have to show that keeping the rainforests standing brings more economic results than cutting down trees and setting them on fire,” he emphasized. The minister believes that the government has done important work to contain deforestation and must now invest in technical assistance and rural extension.

A call for proposals for Payment for Environmental Services (PES) was also launched, focusing on family farmers in the Amazon. Through an investment of approximately BRL 25 million by the Floresta+ Amazônia Project, the public call will reward owners and holders of rural properties who maintain native vegetation areas, contributing directly to environmental conservation and mitigating the effects of climate change.

“These are things that people have been waiting for a long time: this idea of ​​payment for environmental services, valuing the forest and family farmers. Family farmers being placed in the position of those who are helping to combat deforestation, helping to confront climate change,” celebrated Minister of the Environment Marina Silva.

A Performance-Based Payments (PBP) contract was also signed between UNDP and ANATER to strengthen recovery efforts for areas owned by family farmers with properties of up to four fiscal modules, aiming to expand the goals of the União com Municípios Program. The Floresta+ Amazônia initiative will invest BRL 75 million in this effort. This marks the first use of PBP by UNDP in Brazil, a project implementation method already utilized by the agency in other countries.

“What we are doing here is a bit of what the Global South has been saying, that we need help, resources. This partnership with UNDP is very important and needs to be expanded,” Marina Silva highlighted.

A total of BRL 700 million will be invested, with BRL 600 million from the Amazon Fund allocated to benefit 30,000 families through land regularization and technical assistance. An additional BRL 100 million from the Floresta+ Amazônia Project will support the recovery of degraded areas and PES in municipalities participating in the program.

MUNICIPALITIES — The União com Municípios Program was created by Decree No. 11,687, of September 2023, by the MMA. The initiative brings together a set of actions related to the prevention, monitoring, control, and reduction of deforestation and forest degradation in the Amazon biome.

The program foresees the implementation of actions in priority municipalities for deforestation control. A total of 70 municipalities were identified as being responsible, together, for approximately 78% of all deforestation recorded in the Legal Amazon in 2022. Of these, 48 municipalities have already joined the program. The União com Municípios Program is part of the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Amazon (Plano de Ação para Prevenção e Controle do Desmatamento da Amazônia / PPCDAm) and receives technical and financial support of the Floresta+ Amazônia Project.

FLORESTA+ AMAZÔNIA — The Floresta+ Amazônia Project is an initiative of the Brazilian Government, led by the MMA in partnership with the UNDP, with resources from the Green Climate Fund (GCF). It aims to support conservation actions and strengthen deforestation control policies in the Amazon. Some of its initiatives are being implemented in alignment with the goals and priorities of the União com Municípios Program. By 2028, Floresta+ intends to invest USD 96 million (equivalent to almost BRL 540 million) in several fronts of actions divided into five categories: Conservation, Recovery, Communities, Innovation, and Institutions.