Saving the forest that protects us all – the Amazon Fund
Deforestation is slowing in Brazil. This is down to the environmental policy of President Lula – and the internationally financed Amazon Fund. GIZ supports the Fund, which is managed by Brazil, on behalf of the German Government.
Belém is a dynamic city in Brazil’s tropical northern region. As a major port and trading centre, it thrives on a flourishing trade in products and raw materials from the Amazon, which has earned it the nickname ‘the gateway to the Amazon’.
It is this unique geographical location that has put Belém on the world stage. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva chose this city on the edge of the rainforest intentionally to host the 30th UN Climate Change Conference. The world is coming together in the Amazon, where our common future will be decided.
The Amazon and climate action
If the Amazon reaches its tipping point, this will have unpredictable consequences – for the global climate, for vital biodiversity and for humanity as a whole. It is the world’s largest rainforest and acts as a sink for enormous quantities of carbon. It influences water cycles, generates rain and thus acts as a natural climate regulator far beyond the Amazon region.
Never before at a COP has the connection between nature and the climate been so clearly emphasised as in Belém. It has been dubbed a ‘Forest COP’ for good reason. The Brazilian Government would like to drive its own goal of ‘zero deforestation’ by 2030 and get the rest of the international community to commit to this target. In fact, Brazil has been working consistently on improvements. Deforestation has slowed by almost half over the last two years. The zero target has not yet been achieved, but the trend is clearly positive.
This success has been driven by the highly committed Environment Minister Marina Silva, who is seen as the figurehead of the Brazilian environmental movement, and the Amazon Fund – with a total volume of USD 1.3 billion, which is financing the world’s largest forest protection programme. The Fund was founded in 2008 by the Brazilian Government and the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) to mobilise additional funding to protect the Amazon.
The Amazon Fund – an effective instrument
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Investing in the future
The Amazon Fund (Fundo Amazônia) provides funding to preserve the Amazon rainforest, which is vitally important for the global climate. Here is an overview of how it works.
The unique Amazon region
With an area of around 420 million hectares – almost half of Brazil’s national territory – the Amazon is the country’s largest biome. Between 1985 and 2024, it lost 52 million hectares of vegetation, equivalent to 13 per cent of its original area. At present, 82 per cent of the region’s vegetation is still intact, while around 15 per cent has already been converted for anthropogenic use – for agriculture, livestock farming, infrastructure and settlements. After a phase of increasing forest loss in the early 2020s, Brazil has managed to slow deforestation by 44 per cent in the last two years. It has set a national goal of ‘zero deforestation’ – ‘desmatamento zero’.
Preventing forest fires – with German support
GIZ is supporting the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), the protected area management authority ICMBio, and the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change in the fight against illegal deforestation and other environmental crimes. It trains staff at these institutions and develops training materials, for example for criminal prosecution. Another priority is fighting forest fires.
Alongside traditional firefighting, this is done by deliberately starting small fires to destroy material such as dry vegetation before it can ignite a large-scale fire. The authorities and fire services use satellite imagery and GPS data to assist them with this technique. Together with volunteers, civil society and local authorities, GIZ is developing a nationwide fire protection plan and training volunteer firefighters. This integrated fire protection approach is also financed by the Amazon Fund and has so far allowed 33,000 fires to be contained at an early stage.
European countries are taking part
The Amazon Fund’s slogan reads, ‘Brazil protects it. The world supports it. Everyone wins.’ Germany has been committed to the Fund since 2010 via the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and, alongside principal donor Norway, is one of its key allies. The United Kingdom, Denmark, Switzerland, Japan and Ireland also participate in the Fund. Through KfW Development Bank, the Federal Republic of Germany has contributed a total of around USD 90 million – with USD 35 million of this donated after the end of Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency in December 2022. GIZ supports the BNDES team in developing knowledge management and communication structures and in cooperating with Indigenous communities. ‘We have been advising the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) for 15 years,’ says GIZ Project Manager Christian Lauerhaß.
200 protected areas supported, Indigenous network established
The mandate of the Fund pursues measures that preserve the rainforest and use it sustainably. Since it was founded, almost 200 protected areas and around 100 Indigenous territories have received support, more than one million rural areas have been recorded, almost 1,900 inspection missions have been conducted, and over 650 local organisations strengthened.
One example is the Amazon Indigenous Network, which networks Indigenous organisations from nine Brazilian states in the Amazon Basin. It works to protect Indigenous lands and uphold the rights of Indigenous Peoples. The National Center for Prevention and Combat of Forest Fires (PREVFOGO) is a response to the rising number of forest fires resulting from increasing aridity. The Brazilian Biodiversity Fund (FUNBIO) supports people in protected areas, so that they can live from and with the tropical forest sustainably. All in all, 139 projects and programmes have already received funding from the Amazon Fund.
‘Overall, the Amazon Fund is an extremely effective instrument,’ says Christian Lauerhaß, because it ‘achieves real, quantifiable results’. It thus remains an ‘indispensable instrument’ for forest protection – and Germany remains an ‘indispensable partner’ at Brazil’s side.
‘The Amazon rainforest affects us all,’ stresses Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. He has long been warning of the disastrous interactions between forest loss and global warming. ‘If we destroy the rainforest,’ he explains, ‘we are obliterating part of what keeps our Earth stable.’
©Video: GIZ Brasil
©Infographic: Fernando Donasci/MMA/3st
