During Rio+20, Brazil and the ACTO Secretariat announced that Brazil's US$102.6 million Amazon Fund will be shared with the other seven Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) countries to combat deforestation and monitor land use changes in the Amazon.
2o June 2012: At the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20), the Government of Brazil and the Secretariat of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) announced plans to share the US$102.6 million of Brazil’s Amazon Fund with the other seven ACTO member States (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela) to combat deforestation in the Amazon.
Preceding the announcement, the Foreign Relations Ministry’s (“Itamaraty”) director of the South America Department, Clemente Baena Soares, indicated during a public hearing before the Brazilian Senate in May that Itamaraty, the Environment Ministry and Brazil’s National Space Research Institute (INPE) had submitted a project toward this end, titled “Monitoring of Deforestation, Forestry Exploration and Land Use Changes in the Amazon Rainforest,” to the manager of the Fund, Brazil’s National Development Bank (BNDES).
On 12 June 2012 BNDES formally agreed that the project was within Fund guidelines and the criteria set by the Fund’s Steering Committee, and referred the project for framing, with assistance from the Fund, for technical analysis before it is approved for contracting. The Barzilian Government and ACTO expressed the hope to sign the project’s financing agreement before the end of 2012.
Created in 2008, the Amazon Fund raises donations to make non-reimbursable investments to prevent, monitor and combat deforestation, as well as to promote the preservation and sustainable use of forests in the Amazon Biome. The Fund has received US$94.4 million from Norway, US$3.9 million from Germany and US$4.3 from the Brazilian oil and gas company Petrobras. [ACTO Press Release (Portuguese)] [Senate Press Release, May 2012]