In US, AM governor seeks partnerships for sustainable projects in Amazon

From Cenarium Magazine*

MANAUS – In Washington (USA), the governor of Amazonas, Wilson Lima, met this Monday, 8, with representatives of international governmental and business institutions. The goal of the meeting is to establish partnerships for the implementation of projects that contribute to sustainable development and benefit the populations that live in traditional communities in the state.

The mission to the United States brings together members of the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force (GCF), of which Wilson Lima is a member. The governors seek partnerships for investments aimed at implementing the Manaus Action Plan (MAP) – a document that guides the GCF’s actions to maintain the climate and preserve the forest. The plan gets its name because it was drafted in Manaus, in 2022, during the 12th edition of the GCF Annual Meeting.

“This agenda here is very important because we start to define some strategies, establish relationships with institutions that can exchange experiences, technologies, that can also be partners in investments, and strengthen relationships like the partnership with USAID (United States Agency for International Development). It is also the moment for us to render accounts of what we have been doing from the Manaus Action Plan, which was a plan that was created last year when the GCF was held in the state of Amazonas”, said Wilson Lima during the meeting in Washington.

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In the mission, the GCF members presented to government and business leaders the reality and needs of each state that is a member of the task force. The demands are focused on forest conservation integrated with sustainable development. With the mission, the goal is to identify the priorities of possible future partners, programs, timeline, and procedures for the effectiveness of the partnerships.

MAP

When emphasizing that Amazonas maintains 97% of its forest cover preserved, Wilson Lima listed the actions adopted by the State in compliance with the Manaus Action Plan (MAP).

Among the advances, he highlighted the Forest Guardians program – one of the largest initiatives of Payments for Environmental Services in the world, which benefits more than 14 thousand families in 28 State Conservation Units (UCs). Land tenure regularization is also a priority, and the delivery of Collective Real Right of Use Concessions has already reached residents of 15 protected areas in the state.

Wilson Lima stressed that he is working on the construction of three Forest Schools, which aim to strengthen the environmental awareness of young residents of protected areas. The first unit is already under construction in the Sustainable Development Reserve (SDR) Uatumã.

The Amazon Fund+10 is advancing in calls for proposals to promote science, technology and innovation in the Amazon region, through partnerships with state research foundations, governments, the private sector and international organizations.

In parallel, the state has been carrying out diagnoses in 15 Conservation Units, by means of the Consolidating Project, to identify the powerful productive chains in the protected areas, in order to develop them.

Another seven UCs have received workshops for the implementation of planting without the use of fire, in an attempt to educate families for sustainable management.

Also noteworthy is the investment of more than R$ 13.5 million in environmental projects between 2020 and 2022, after the state took back the State Fund for the Environment.

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Partnerships

The Government of Amazonas has signed partnerships and supported companies with environmental initiatives. An example is the community management at the RDS do Uatumã, developed together with the company Mil Madeiras.

The defense and strengthening of the Manaus Industrial Complex is also part of the environmental policy. The generation of jobs and income in the pole avoids the increase in demand for land use, reducing environmental impacts.

The state has also advanced in the concessions of public forests, as a sustainable economic alternative balancing environmental conservation, respect for forest cycles and local income generation. The forecast is to hold the first concession, of the State Forest of Maués, still in 2023.

Carbon

The State Government has regulated the State Law of Environmental Services, structuring the State REDD+ System, with all the necessary legal framework for Amazonas to participate in the carbon market. The State has already offered for sale 809.6 million tons of carbon equivalent credits.

Participants

The meeting was attended, besides governor Wilson Lima, by representatives of the GCF; the US State Department; the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Forest Service of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA); the State Secretaries of the Environment, Eduardo Taveira, and of the Civil House, Flávio Antony, as well as members of the Acre and Rondônia governments.

The Task Force is composed of 43 states and provinces from 10 different countries that together hold about a third of the world’s tropical forests. The group is considered the largest subnational environmental alliance.

Other meetings

Wilson Lima’s agenda in Washington includes meetings at the USDA – United States Department of Agriculture – and with the partner institutions International Conservation Caucus Foundation Group – ICCF, Wilson Center and WWF.

(*) With information from the press office