(Bloomberg) —
Brazil’s flagship Amazon rainforest protection program brought in one of the largest single-year funding hauls in its history in 2023, boosting President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s push to halt illegal deforestation by the end of the decade.
The Amazon Fund, an international conservation initiative launched in 2008 with the support of Germany and Norway, received 726 million reais ($148 million) in donations from other nations last year, government officials announced at an event in Brasilia on Thursday. That marks its best annual total since the year it began operating, said Tereza Campello, who oversees the fund for the country’s national development bank.
The total amounts only about 20% of what foreign governments promised to eventually deliver: Brazil received a total of 3.8 billion reais in funding pledges from other nations last year, and is in advanced talks with the US, Norway, European Union and Denmark over those contributions, Campello said. That includes President Joe Biden’s commitment to seek $500 million from Congress for the fund.
The UK is in the final stages of delivering nearly 500 million reais after committing to the fund for the first time, making up the bulk of the money Brazil considers as part of the 2023 total. Germany contributed 186 million reais. Switzerland and the US — two other first-time funders — have so far sent 28 million reais and 15 million reais to Brazil, respectively.
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The fund has more than 3 billion reais under management, Campello said, and is planning to support more than 500 new projects in 2024. It is not dependent on the rest of the foreign funding, including the money from the US, to carry out its protection efforts in the region, she said.
Deforestation has fallen sharply since Lula returned to office last year, according to official data. The leftist leader has also pushed to start a green transition of Brazil’s economy with investments into decarbonization, sustainable infrastructure and the creation of a new regulated carbon market. Brazil last year sold its first-ever sustainable bond, a long-awaited deal that is meant to bolster Lula’s environmental agenda.
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