Brazil’s National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) and the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MMA) unveiled their most comprehensive assessment of the Amazon Fund to date during a COP30 session in Belém, highlighting the initiative’s expanding scale, strengthened governance, and renewed momentum.
According to the review, the Amazon Fund has financed more than 140 projects over 17 years, reaching 75% of municipalities in the Legal Amazon and supporting over 260,000 people. Its activities span forest restoration, territorial protection, environmental enforcement, land regularisation, education, sociobioeconomy development, and the institutional strengthening of traditional communities—positioning the Fund as a global reference point for transparency and results-based climate finance.
Tereza Campello, BNDES Director of Social and Environmental Affairs, noted that the Fund has undergone a dramatic resurgence after a four-year freeze on project approvals between 2019 and 2022. “After four years without approving a single project, we have rebuilt the entire portfolio, reorganised the strategy, and demonstrated that it is possible to work with scale, urgency, and impact,” she said. “This assessment shows the strength of an instrument that combines public policy, science, social participation, and international cooperation.”
João Paulo Capobianco, Executive Secretary at the MMA, emphasised the Amazon Fund’s roots in long-term policy continuity. He recalled its creation under Brazil’s 2006 Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Amazon (PPCDAm), which coordinated 13 ministries. “We lowered emissions by 5 billion tonnes of CO₂ equivalent from 2004 to 2012 by tackling deforestation directly. We demonstrated to the world that the effort was grounded in method, in science, and in public policy,” he said.
Capobianco added that the Fund carries a moral imperative: “Every investment made by the Amazon Fund carries a powerful message: forests have value if they are standing. Moving toward sustainable development is not utopian — it is a political decision.”
The Fund’s relaunch has also been accompanied by a significant expansion in international support. The donor base has grown from three to ten, with new contributions from the European Union, Switzerland, the United States, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Ireland, and Japan. They join Norway and Germany—long-standing donors who have renewed and increased their commitments—alongside additional support from Petrobras.
Norway’s Environment Minister, Andreas Bjelland Eriksen, praised the initiative’s strategic importance and signalled continued confidence in its direction. Representing Germany, Wolfgang Bindseil, Minister at the German Embassy in Brazil, highlighted the Fund’s global relevance: “Germany has backed the Amazon Fund from the very beginning and continued to do so even in the most difficult periods. Its swift and steady recovery highlights both its importance and its international credibility. The expansion in the number of projects, the growing territorial reach, and the institutional strengthening of agencies like Ibama make clear that this is a global model for results-based climate finance.”
