Amazon fund allocates nearly BRL 124 million to 19 ecological restoration projects in indigenous territories

BNDES and the Brazilian government disclosed the selected proposals in the third call of the Restaura Amazônia program at COP30. The initiative will benefit a total area of 3,380 hectares in the Restoration Arc region

By BNDES News Agency

On Friday, November and at COP30 in Belém (PA), the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (Ministério do Meio Ambiente e Mudança do Clima/MMA), the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples (Ministério dos Povos Indígenas/MPI), and the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (FUNAI) announced the results of the third public selection of proposals supported by the Restaura Amazônia initiative. Backed by BRL 450 million from the Amazon Fund, which is managed by BNDES in partnership with the MMA, the initiative aims to restore the Amazon rainforest.

In this third block of public calls, 19 projects were selected to support ecological restoration and strengthen the restoration productive chain in Indigenous Lands across the Legal Amazon. The initiative covers more than 3.3 thousand hectares in 26 Indigenous Territories within the Restoration Arc region, distributed across the states of Acre, Amazonas, Rondônia, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Pará, and Maranhão. Restaura Amazônia represents one of the largest ecological restoration efforts ever undertaken in the country.

"When we talk about forest restoration, we are talking about replacing the forest, which was taken from these territories by invaders, either with productive restoration, to generate income, to have more food security, to have more resilience in these territories, or ecological restoration so that we pass on this ancestral knowledge of cultivating the forest," affirmed the Superintendent of the BNDES Environmental Area, Mr. Nabil Kadri.

The Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Ms. Sonia Guajajara, also participated in the results disclosure and cited the importance of international participation in forest protection. "We expect global leaders to understand that there is no way to think about solutions for the climate crisis without including everyone who protects and cares for biodiversity. There is no way to find effective solutions without including these different voices. This COP here in the Amazon, in Belém, is consolidated as the COP with the largest and best participation of Indigenous, traditional, and Afro-descendant communities," she highlighted.

Together, the 19 proposals will receive BRL 123.6 million in support from the Amazon Fund to restore a total area of 3,380 hectares. "These resources and actions, directly from the Amazon Fund, are an accountability to Brazilian society and the result of the work, the effort of civil servants, traditional peoples and communities, and the fight against deforestation," celebrated Mr. Edel Moraes, National Secretary of Traditional Peoples and Communities and Sustainable Rural Development (SNPCT) of the MMA.

"It is not simply a matter of vegetation restoration; it is about ensuring that the territory has the continuation of its traditional seeds, its native vegetation, its way of caring for the land. So, it means much more than ecological restoration. It means the lives of Indigenous Peoples are being reaffirmed in these territories, being continued with their traditional practices, their management, their use of the land," said the President of FUNAI, Ms. Joenia Wapichana.

"Restaura Amazônia is a large-scale initiative to plant native trees and prevent the forest from reaching a point of no-return devastation," stated the President of BNDES, Mr. Aloizio Mercadante. "This initiative is central to the Restoration Arc, which, in addition to regenerating degraded areas, creates a protection belt to halt deforestation."

Learn more about the third phase of Restaura Amazônia

English version: Trad. Bárbara Menezes.
Proofreading by Enrique Villamil.