Bali (Indonesia) – The basic idea of the Fund for Protection and Conservation of the Brazilian Amazon is to raise $ 1 billion in voluntary contributions to invest in the reduction of deforestation in Brazil. The new fund was announced last Wednesday (12) in Bali, in an event organized by the Brazilian delegation during the conference on climate (COP-13).

The fund will be officially launched in the first quarter of 2008.

With a simple mechanism, according to the director of the Brazilian Forest Service (SFB), Tasso Azevedo, the fund aims to attract investments from governments, including international, business and even donations from individuals to reduce the rates of deforestation in Amazonia.

"We hope to get, in the opening, some US $ 150 million. We are talking to companies, banks, airlines and the energy sector, they have shown interest in contributing," Azevedo. The government of Norway was the first to confirm a contribution, but there is no defined values yet.

Translated and adapted from Agencia Brasil [1], with permission