Brazilian Forest Service launches sustainable forestry fund

A new initiative has been launched by Brazilian government agencies that will see the distribution of more that 2.2 million reals worth of funding to sustainable forestry projects before the end of the year.

The National Fund for Forestry Development (FNDF), which is being managed by the Brazilian Forest Service (SFB), is encouraging applications for funding from projects that aim to use the nation's forests in both enterprising and environmentally friendly ways.

Bosses say the aim of the fund is to make positive and strong forms of forest management an innate part of the country's business model.

The SFB said that the development fund has been devised in line with the government strategy, introduced in Public Forest Management Law, requiring a specific fund to support the forest sector.

The FNDF will be implemented in co-operation with the Forestry Board of the Ministry of Environment, the National Environment Fund (FNMA) and Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio).

As well as the resources made available by the executive agencies, money harnessed from forest concessions will be used to back the FNDF. This, due to the expansion of public forest concession areas scheduled for 2015, is expected to increase the budget of FNDF to 20 million reals (about US$11.4 million) per year.