In the Media
Brazil’s Amazon Fund bogs down, donors frustrated
January 14, 2012
Reuters Africa
An international fund to protect the Amazon forest launched by Brazil in 2008 has gotten bogged down in red tape and donors are frustrated their $466 million contributions are hardly put to use, a Norwegian official said.
The fund was designed to slow deforestation by stimulating sustainable economic alternatives to cattle ranching and farming, which have destroyed parts of the forests.
So far Brazil has only used $39 million on 23 sustainable growth projects, with another $53 million under contract. This poor performance has weakened Brazil’s voice as a leading advocate for the protection of the developing world’s forests with funding from rich nations.
A government official from Norway, the fund’s largest donor, told Reuters in Brasilia that his country is unhappy with Brazil’s slow pace in identifying new projects, which has raised questions about the use of the funds in Brazil, where they are managed by the state-owned National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES).
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Keywords: Amazon Fund, Brazil, fund, Latin America, Norway, policies, REDD