Ministers visit the Amazon
The Norwegian ministers of environment and development, Mr. Bård Vegar Solhjell and Mr. Heikki Holmås visited Manaus and the Amazon forest this weekend.
The two ministers were accompanied by Norwegian press and several close advisers.
The Norwegian government is supporting the Brazilian Amazon fund, financing projects that aim to reduce deforestation in the Amazon region, and the two ministers visited one of these projects in the Rio Negro development reserve, 68 kilometers up river from Manaus, state capital of Amazonas.
The Amazonas Sustainable Foundation, Fundacão Amazonas Sustentavel or FAS, has received 19,2 million reais from the Amazon Fund. The foundation’s mission is to promote the sustainable involvement, environmental conservation and improvement of quality of life of communities living and users of protected areas in Amazonas.
Forest allowance
In the small community of Tumbira, situated in the Rio Negro development reserve, 27 families receive 50 reais per month thru a FAS program called “bolsa floresta”, and the funding that FAS received thru the Amazon Fund has been used to build a school, provide better education and to develop alternative ways of earning a living, other than cutting down the forest.
In the small community of Tumbira, situated in the Rio Negro development reserve, 27 families receive 50 reais per month thru a FAS program called “bolsa floresta”, and the funding that FAS received thru the Amazon Fund has been used to build a school, provide better education and to develop alternative ways of earning a living, other than cutting down the forest.
“We need to give the forest a value, to show that it is more worth standing than cut. The Amazon forest is a gift to humanity”, says Luiz Villares, financial and administrative superintendent in FAS.
The Norwegian delegation was impressed with they saw in Tumbira and in two other river communities on June 16th.
“The Brazilian effort to reduce deforestation is probably the biggest emission reducing effort on the planet. By reducing deforestation, Brazil has reduced its emissions about 10-15 times the total of Norway’s emissions. This is simply impressing”, minister of environment, Mr. Bård Vegar Solhjell says.
Looking for new projects
Brazil has reduced deforestation in the Amazon region by 64 percent since 2004, and Norway has rewarded this effort by making 2,55 billion Norwegian kroner available to the Amazon fund. This is actually far more than Brazil has been able to use. So far, only 554 million Norwegian kroner has been paid, and the Brazilian development bank, BNDES who coordinates the Amazon Fund and evaluates the projects, is still looking for new projects to support. Currently the Amazon fund supports 21 different project in the Amazon region.
Brazil has reduced deforestation in the Amazon region by 64 percent since 2004, and Norway has rewarded this effort by making 2,55 billion Norwegian kroner available to the Amazon fund. This is actually far more than Brazil has been able to use. So far, only 554 million Norwegian kroner has been paid, and the Brazilian development bank, BNDES who coordinates the Amazon Fund and evaluates the projects, is still looking for new projects to support. Currently the Amazon fund supports 21 different project in the Amazon region.
From Manaus the Norwegian delegation traveled about 70 kilometer up the Rio Negro by boat, to visit the communities Tumbira, Saracá and Santo Antônio do Boto.
FAS supports 540 communities in 15 state protected areas in the Amazon, and the programs benefit 8100 families, more than 35.000 people. About 2 million people live in the Brazilian Amazon forest today.
“Many are extremely poor, and it is very difficult to convince them to preserve the forest, when they live under such precarious conditions. The families that receive the bolsa floresta sign a commitment not to cut down the forest, and we pay them for the service they provide. We also have workshops and different capacity building initiatives to show people alternative ways of earning a living. It is always the local community that chooses what they want to do. Some grow vegetables, others establish fishing cooperatives or Brazil nut cooperatives, Mr. Villares explains.
“To preserve the forest we need to involve the people who lives there. They need to feel that they play an important part”, the minister of development, Mr. Heikki Holmås says.
The Norwegian delegation had lunch in a community restaurant in Saracá where 25 families are benefited by the FAS programs. This particular community chose to use the FAS funds to build a restaurant, hoping that tourism in the future will generate more jobs and more opportunities.
It is the women in communities like Tumbira who receive the forest allowance called Bolsa floresta. All photos by Runa Hestmann Tierno
“The FAS programs seem professional, efficient and they seem to reach the people that need the support”, Mr. Solhjell said after visiting Tumbira and Saracá.
UN summit
The ministers Solhjell and Holmås are both part of the Norwegian delegation present during the UN conference Rio +20 taking place in Rio de Janeiro from June 13.-22.
The ministers Solhjell and Holmås are both part of the Norwegian delegation present during the UN conference Rio +20 taking place in Rio de Janeiro from June 13.-22.
The Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg is leading the Norwegian delegation. Minister of agriculture, Lars Peder Brekk, was also coming to Rio de Janeiro, but he cancelled his participation as he recently left the government.
Rio +20 marks that 20 years have passed since the first UN conference on sustainable development took place in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
Fonte: NBCC
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