Renewed appointment for BVRio as executing partner for Climate Governance in Rondônia

BVRio has again been designated as the executing partner for the local work of the Climate Governance for Rondônia project, formally appointed by the State Government of Rondônia in a letter sent to the executive secretariat of the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force (GCF). After successfully concluding the first phase, carried out between 2018 and 2020, the second phase of the project is to develop public agendas and participatory instruments for state climate governance.

This new phase begins with a meeting to set up the State Forum on Climate Change, on April 7, in Porto Velho, the capital of the State of Rondônia. The forum is one of the main governance structures of the project, comprising 24 members, 12 of whom are representatives from governmental bodies and 12 from civil society. BVRio will lead the allocation of resources required to implement the State’s Climate Governance System, including the Forum, a Steering Committee, a safeguards system, a compensation program for environmental services and a resources fund. The Steering Committee will have six members representing the civil society, who will be elected among the members of the Forum on April 7.

BVRio’s Director of Forests and Public Policies, Beto Mesquita, who will participate in the Forum, commented: “The state governments must take direct action to mitigate deforestation efficiently. The resources from international agencies and private companies will only be accessed with transparent and efficient governance systems.” Within the context of increasing deforestation of the Amazon in recent years, governance is a vital strategy to mitigate this process.

Rondônia has four REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) projects underway. Fundamentally, the governance system of the states foresees the integration of these pioneer projects into the new rules, to leverage the investment capacity and cooperation of the private sector.

Financial and technical supporters

The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) is financing this second stage of investments, called ‘Window B’ of the project ‘Unlocking and leveraging low emission development in the Amazon’. It aims to design public policies and implement governance and participation tools related to the forest and climate agendas within the Brazilian states.

The resources are to be channeled through a contract between UNDP and the Sustainable Amazon Foundation (FAS), which, in turn, will establish a technical and financial cooperation agreement with the executing partners in each of the nine states of the Legal Amazon. The project is expected to last for 18 months, up to the end of the first semester of 2023.

 

Register until April 6 to attend the State Forum on Climate Change for Rondonia: