The Amazon Fund 10 years later: resource distribution and effects of REDD+ in the Brazilian Amazon

• Autor(a) principal: Juliano Correa
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFMG
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/1843/42139; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7277-9899
• topic: Amazon fund; Deforestation; RBA; CAR; Engenharia de produção; Desmatamento

Established in 2008 by the Brazilian Government, the Amazon Fund aims to raise results-based aid (RBA) to make non-reimbursable investments in projects to prevent, monitor and combat deforestation, as well to promote conservation and sustainable use of forests in the Amazon Biome. Although often presented as a success story, few studies have been conducted to show evidence of the effectiveness of the Amazon Fund as an RBA instrument and how much of a reduction in deforestation is within reach of its projects.The objectives of this study can be described as: (1) Look back and assess the accomplishments and shortfalls in order to draw lessons for REDD+ and RBA in Brazil and other tropical countries, examining the geographical, thematic and institutional distribution of the resources from the AF; (2) Determine the effects of the Olhos D’Água projects on deforestation, sustainable production and environmental and land-ownership compliance in the Alta Floresta municipality, estimating what would have happened without these interventions; (3) Evaluate the effect of the rural environmental registry (CAR), the larger initiative supported by AF, on the reduction of deforestation rates. To reach these objectives, this thesis was structured as 3 papers, using, respectively: procedures to structure a database and interpret the data in light of bibliographical research; an impact evaluation using the Synthetic Control method; and adapting statisticals methods widely used in epidemiological studies applied to land use policy evaluation. This research concluded that: The Amazon Fund could allocate financial resources more strategically and in activities with clear evidence of improvement for REDD+ outcomes; the project "Olhos D’Água da Amazônia I and II" played an important role in the effort of Alta Floresta to have the municipality removed from the blacklist of deforestation, at least, in a shorter period than would be in the absence of the project. The project also depict strong evidence of an increase in CAR registrations and INCRA geo-certification records and positive effects on sustainable production activities of milk and honey production, but with no effect in deforestation reduction; and, finally, the effect of CAR on the reduction of deforestation is only partially effecive, one time that the enrolled properties have reduced their deforestation rates in some property classes and time periods, but this effect has not been systematic across time and space.