Philanthropic funds announced USD 280 million in grants for the protection and sustainable development of the Brazilian Amazon over the next four years, with the aim of reaching zero deforestation.
The lead was taken by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), one of the most important environmental funds, with USD 80 million, and Protecting Our Planet (POP), with USD 200 million.
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos are part of the POP initiative. “We call on additional philanthropists to join the new commitment to protect and restore Amazonia in Brazil and beyond,” Mr. DiCaprio wrote on Twitter.
The actor also praised President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Instagram for the reduction of deforestation in the Amazon in April, and criticized former President Jair Bolsonaro, during whose administration “deforestation reached its highest level.”
Mssrs. DiCaprio and Bolsonaro have taken jabs at each other on social media over the last few years. The former president accused the actor of financing NGOs that he claimed were responsible for Amazon deforestation.
The donations were agreed upon in a meeting in Brasília last week between representatives from the philanthropic funds, President Lula, Environment Minister Marina Silva, and Indigenous Peoples Minister Sônia Guajajara.
The money will not go to the government, but directly to projects aligned with one of three thematic agendas: Social and Environmental Development of Communities; Structuring of New Conservation Units, and Institutional Strengthening and Governance.
Ms. Silva had been negotiating with POP and GEF representatives since the COP 27 climate summit last November, as well as during Lula’s visit to U.S. President Joe Biden in January.
Last week, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) launched an umbrella program called Amazonia Forever with seven of the nine Amazonian countries in South America. The program aims to scale up existing resources and find new sources of funding for sustainable development in the Amazon region.
Recently, the World Bank published a report that estimates that the desertification of the Amazon rainforest could cost the Brazilian economy USD 184.1 billion (BRL 920.5 billion), or 9.7 percent of current GDP, by 2050 — without mentioning the global consequences for the environment.
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