ISEAL Alliance

The United States Treasury and Brazil have signed an agreement converting $21m of Brazilian debt into a fund to protect three tropical ecosystems.

Brazil will use the money for activities to conserve protected areas, improve natural resource management and develop sustainable livelihoods for communities that rely on forests. The Mata Atlântica, Cerrado and Caatinga ecosystems covered by the agreement are under threat from severe deforestation, but receive much less attention than the Amazon. 

Due to pressures from cattle ranching and soy farming, the Cerrado’s vast woody savannah in central Brazil is currently disappearing at twice the rate as the neighbouring Amazon. The eight remaining percent of the Mata Atlântica rainforest are considered as a global biodiversity hotspot with more than 250 species of mammals, more than 750 species of reptiles and amphibians and nearly 1000 species of birds – wildlife that includes  Black-faced Lion Tamarins, Brazilian Gold Frogs and Blue-Bellied Parrots. The dry tropical forest Caatinga is under threat from cattle ranching, charcoal production and timber harvesting.

The agreement comes under the Tropical Forest Conservation Act (TFCA) of 1998, which to date has generated $239 million to protect tropical forests in Bangladesh, Belize, Botswana, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Jamaica, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and the Philippines. The Brazil deal is the 16th signed under the TFCA.

Source: Mongabay