The United Nations Organization (UN) in Brazil signed on Tuesday (15) with the Interstate Consortium of the Legal Amazon a fund to receive contributions of resources in the order of U$ 300 million that can be applied in sustainable development projects in the Amazon region.
The document was signed during COP 27, by Silvia Rucks, resident coordinator of the UN System in Brazil; Maria Helena Semedo, deputy director-general of FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and the director of the Ecosystems Division of the United Nations Environment Programme (PNUMA), Susan Gardner. Governors Helder Barbalho, from Pará, and Mauro Mendes, from Mato Grosso, signed on behalf of the Legal Amazon Consortium.
As stated in the document, the fund constitutes a "programmatic financial mechanism to support the development of the Amazon in an integrated and cooperative way between the UN and the Consortium".
According to Silvia Rucks, the mechanism is a fund that will receive contributions to support initiatives in the region, in conjunction with the United Nations and the Consortium of States. "Today is a historical day for the United Nations in Brazil, but also for the Consortium of the Legal Amazon. The mechanism signed will receive proposals for programs, projects for the sustainable development of the Amazon. Social, environmental, and economic proposals that will lead to the preservation of the Amazon, but, what is very important for all of us, is to look at the people who live and inhabit the Amazon region. Projects that can improve people's lives, with health, education, employment, and income for those who live in the cities and rural areas of the Amazon", Silvia highlighted.
For Helder Barbalho, governor of Pará, the partnership comes in the sense of supporting initiatives to help the inspection, but, especially, to develop new economic activities with more sustainability. "It is very important through this fund, which has already contributed 300 million dollars, that the UN comes forward to build together with the states of the Brazilian Amazon the climate financing, the fight against illegal deforestation, the policy of monetization of the living forest, with bio-economy and biodiversity, together with the communities and building the conditions so that we can have this model of sustainable and social development in our region", said Helder.
Thirteen institutions are already interested in learning more about the fund
Currently, according to Silvia Rucks, the United Nations System in Brazil has 34 agencies with programs and all of them will be available to cooperate with the initiative. In addition, there are already thirteen institutions interested in learning more about the fund and contributing to development programs in the region.
"To execute these initiatives, which are words, and transform them into actions, we need resources. And today we have also opened funds to receive donations from countries, from organizations and different kinds of donors who are interested in supporting sustainable development in the region. Today we signed and there are already thirteen countries and organizations that have expressed their interest in contributing to the fund of the United Nations and the Consortium, and this generates a very high expectation", she stated.
For her, the resources will be applied to promote economic alternatives and projects that seek to develop the region and reduce poverty indexes. "We are going to work on economic and inclusive alternatives that allow people to have a dignified life. The Legal Amazon has almost 30 million people, the greatest wealth in the world, but concentrates the worst poverty rates and human development index and the highest food insecurity rate in the country. It is unacceptable that people live in the area of greatest wealth in the world and live with so much material poverty", stated Silvia.
