20/05/2005 - A US$3.3
million donation to be invested in the protection
of the Amazon's biodiversity was announced
by WWF International Director General Dr Claude
Martin.
The announcement was made in Brazil in the
presence of Brazilian President Luis Inácio
Lula da Silva in celebration of World Biodiversity
Day.
President da Silva highlighted the results
achieved by the Amazon Protected Areas Programme
(ARPA), which is responsible for protecting
50 million hectares of Amzonian forests -
an area the size of Spain.
"The ARPA Programme achieved its initial
target two years ahead of time and already
created 9 million hectares of protected areas,"
Brazilian Environment Minister Marina da Silva
emphasized during the ceremony.
In March 2005, Brazil announced the creation
of the 3.3 million hectare Terra do Meio Ecological
Station, and the 445,000ha Pardo National
Park – both located in the southeastern region
of the State of Pará.
Since its inception in 2002, ARPA has seen
the creation of 23 new protected areas, totalling
some 16 million hectares of parks and reserves
throughout the Brazilian Amazon. It has also
helped slow down the rate of deforestation
“In combination with other policies, the
creation of protected areas may play a critical
role to reduce the high level of deforestation
in the Brazilian Amazon,” said WWF-Brazil
CEO Denise Hamu, referring to a recent announcement
by the Brazilian Environment Ministry which
revealed that 26,130 square kilometers of
forests had disappeared between August 2003
and August 2004.
The WWF donation will go to a trust fund,
which was specially created to ensure the
consolidation of protected areas under ARPA.
An equal amount will be matched by the Global
Environmental Fund (GEF), thus earmarking
US$6.6 million for the conservation of the
Amazon's biodiversity.
In addition to its newly announced contribution,
WWF intends to also raise another US$6.7 million
for the trust fund by July 2007.
“Our contribution means the acknowledgement
of Brazil’s progress in its commitment to
strengthen the Amazon protected areas,"
said Senior Vice-President, Guillermo Castilleja,
of WWF-US.
"It is meant to inspire other private
and public donors to join us in the effort
to protect the Amazon biodiversity and population.”
Another trust fund – the National Biodiersity
Fund – managed by the Brazilian NGO, Funbio,
is also trying to raise US$240 million by
2013 to provide financial resources to be
invested in the maintenance of the protected
areas prioritized by ARPA.
“It is like a savings account to prevent
the ARPA investment from wearing out in time”,
added WWF-Brazil CEO Denise Hamu, who is also
a member of the ARPA Fund Raising Committee.
During the event, WWF-Brazil also signed
a technical cooperation agreement with the
government of Amazonas state through which
it will invest US$1 million to strengthen
the state protected areas system. These funds
will be used to finance activities concerning
the identification of new areas to be protected,
especially in the Negro River basin in the
northwestern part of the state.
NOTES:
• ARPA is a programme of the Brazilian government,
which aims to protect a representative sample
of various Amazonian landscapes through the
creation and implementation of at least 50
million hectares of protected areas (parks
and reserves). The programme focuses on five
different categories of protected areas: parks,
biological reserves, ecological stations,
extractive reserves, and sustainable use reserves.
• ARPA is coordinated by the Brazilian Ministry
of the Environment and the official environmental
agency, Ibama, and is implemented in partnership
with state and municipal governments, as welll
as Funbio (the Brazilian Biodiversity Fund),
GEF, the World Bank, KfW (the official German
cooperation bank), GTZ (the German technical
cooperation agency), and WWF-Brazil.
• In order to achieve its goal, the programme
will invest US$400 million during a ten-year
period (2003-2013).
