Eastern Amazon Fund (FAO) raised BRL 30 million in 2022 for investments in shares

The Eastern Amazon Fund (FAO) is a climate financing vehicle based on private collaborations, aimed at strengthening public policies and social initiatives focused on the environment and development. FAO is the main instrument of one of the four pillars of the Amazônia Agora State Plan (PEAA), called “Long-Range Financing”. 

Although private in nature, FAO can be considered a good Public-Private Partnership (PPP) experiment. This is because it relies on the decisive role of the three dimensions: Government, Civil Society and Business.

FAO is guided by a Steering Committee (CGFAO), made up of the Government and Civil Society, which establishes guidelines, monitors and supervises the Fund’s performance; the private sector participates with the contribution of resources to the Fund, which may come voluntarily or from legal obligations contracted by companies; Civil Society participates both in resource deliberations (via CGFAO) and in the execution of the resources themselves, in addition to potential beneficiaries, and; the Government is in charge of making efforts to attract new resources and guarantee that investments take place in accordance with the legislation and priorities determined by the Committee. 

In order for the FAO to be effectively innovative, when compared to public funds, the State Government promoted, still in 2021, a long and broad selection process of the Fund’s Management Entity, which enshrined Funbio as the winning entity of the event, taking over the fundraising functions, execution and management of financial resources, within the framework determined by the Management Committee and by the laws and public policies of Pará. A novelty of this type of operation is that, once the functioning criteria are established, Funbio is free to apply the resources and then provide goods, services, when applicable, or direct financing to society’s initiatives, through the opening of Notices. 

In addition, with the function of execution and accountability being entrusted to a private entity, but of public interest – a specialized OSCIP, with extensive experience in environmental funds and with international standard accreditations, as is the case of Funbio – this implementation it takes place more quickly and efficiently, without jeopardizing legal certainty in deliveries, whether of products or services that collaborate with the success of the Amazônia Agora State Plan.

The Secretary’s Director of Strategic Planning and Corporate Projects, Wendell Andrade, positively evaluates the recognition that the State Public Administration had when identifying that, alone, it would not overcome the existing challenges in Pará, going beyond and with boldness and firm purpose, building a tool unprecedented to leverage environmental management in the State. 

“Much of the confidence that little by little we are gaining in Brazil and in the world has its merit in the vanguard vision of the State Government, which understood the complexity of the challenges we face in Pará and took the right political and technical decision for FAO to be formally recognized and consolidated, as it is now. One of the guidelines of the Government is the search for new partnerships and new ways of using public resources, which we understand to be a redesign of that concept of Public Administration, in which the State had to be the doer of everything. We break it. The modern State, concerned with large-scale deliveries, needs to guarantee legal certainty, a favorable environment for investment and the capacity to supervise what legitimately accredited partners carry out. This is innovation in Public Administration and, therefore, positioning itself in an appropriate way to make public deliveries with much more volume and impact, as Pará needs us to do”, he revealed. “No wonder, the slogan we adopted for the FAO is ‘the Government encourages, Society leads, the world supports. Everyone wins’, because this line of reasoning sums up what the FAO is all about”, he adds.

Funding – In 2022, FAO obtained a total of BRL 30 of the 31 million raised so far. The most recent contribution took place during the 27th United Nations Climate Conference, COP 27, held in Egypt in November. On the occasion, a Donation Agreement in the amount of R$ 20 million (US$ 3.85 million) was signed between the Government of Pará, Funbio and the Moore Foundation, the donating institution. 

The other contributions consist of a donation from a private obligation, in the amount of R$ 5 million from the company JBS, contracted with the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), and R$ 5 million – also from legal obligations – from the company Imerys Rio Capim Caulim SA. 

“Our balance is very positive, the FAO completes 14 months of operation this December and it is already executing resources in the region of R$ 11 million. An execution in which approximately one third of this amount is already used on the fronts defined by the CGFAO, which involve investments in the forest restoration agenda, through the promotion of a state seed network; infrastructural investments, such as the Datacenter (security and data storage center) of the bodies of the State Environment System; carrying out specific communication work, with emphasis on climate education, which is super important for citizens to understand how climate change impacts people’s lives, and much more will come ahead. I always say that the challenge is to reach the third digit in an account, 

The Fund’s legal framework is State Decree no. 346/2019, which brings with it the objective of supporting 15 main fronts identified by the State as crucial and in need of investments for consolidation. The objective is to reach 300 million reais by 2025. Investments must always observe the axes foreseen as eligible in the State Decree that recognizes the mechanism, and will be aimed at actions linked to Amazônia Agora, such as combating deforestation, stimulating rural production sustainability, the role and appreciation of traditional communities, the recovery of degraded areas, the implementation of Conservation Units and institutional strengthening.

Of the 15 axes that make up the Eastern Amazon Fund, three themes were defined as priorities by the FAO Steering Committee for the 2022-24 period, namely: productive forest restoration; promotion of sustainable economic activities and chains based on the use and exploitation of natural resources, with an emphasis on Bioeconomy; and strengthening instruments for territorial, land and environmental planning.

Reproduction Pará Agency