On 1 August, at the headquarters of National Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES) in Rio de Janeiro, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a decree establishing the Fundo Amazônia (Fund for the Amazon).

The main objectives of the fund are to manage public forests and protected areas; provide environmental control, monitoring and inspection; ensure sustainable management of the forest; develop economic activities on the basis of sustainable use of the forest; carry out environmental and economic zoning; regularise agrarian use of the forest; conserve and sustainably use biodiversity and ensure the recovery of areas that have suffered from deforestation.

The decree also states that 20% of the fund's resources can be invested in deforestation monitoring and control systems in other Brazilian biomes or other tropical countries.

In setting up the Fund, BNDES will also create two committees: The Technical Committee of the Fund for the Amazon and The Steering Committee of Fund for the Amazon.

The Technical Committee, which has a mandate of three years and is made up of six experts appointed by the Ministry for the Environment in consultation with the Brazilian Forum on Climate Change, will be responsible for certifying CO2 emissions (calculated by the Ministry for the Environment) resulting from deforestation.

The Steering Committee will include representatives from the Federal and State Governments of the Amazon Region as well as the civil society. Each body will nominate one representative. The Committee will be chaired by a Federal Government representative with a mandate of two years. The first mandate will be of the Ministry for the Environment.

The following Ministries will be represented in the Steering Committee: Environment; Development, Industry and Foreign Trade; External Relations; Agriculture, Livestock and Supply; Agrarian Development; Science and Technology. In addition, the Office of the President, the Strategic Affairs Secretariat of the Office of the President and BNDES will also be represented.

The civil society organizations that will be represented are: Brazilian NGO Forum and Social Movements for the Environment and Development; Coordination of the Organizations of Indigenous Populations of the Brazilian Amazon; Confederation of National Industry; National Forum for Forest Based Trades; National Confederation of Agricultural Workers; and Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science.

The BNDES will issue Donation Certificates in recognition of the contribution of the donors. Donation Certificates will be nominal and non-transferrable and will not generate either rights or credits of any kind or nature. Details of the certificates will be accessible on the internet.

Project funding applications to the Fund for the Amazon must conform to the guidelines of the Sustainable Amazon Plan (PAS) and Prevention and Control of Deforestation of the Legal Amazon (PPCDAM).

The activities of the fund will be subject to an annual external audit.

The decree was signed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Minister Miguel Jorge (Development, Industry and Foreign Trade) and Minister Carlos Minc (Environment).

Source: Ministry of External Relations and Embassy of Brazil in London