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Brazil's Ministry of Environment's (MMA) Amazon Protected Areas (Arpa) program will be able to count on US$ 80 million in investments. The funds will be used for the creation and conservation of protected areas in the Brazilian Amazon.
The areas are created to preserve the Amazon region's natural resources, in addition to ensuring sustainable development through the rational exploitation of these riches.
Conservation units have already been established encompassing a total of 9 million hectares, half the amount planned for the first phase of the program, which runs through 2007.
By 2013, 37 million hectares of the Brazilian Amazon will come under protection.
The Arpa program involves cooperation among the federal, state, and municipal governments, the Brazilian Fund for Biodiversity (Funbio), the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the KfW Bank from Germany, and the World Bank.
According to the MMA's secretary of Biodiversity and Forests, João Paulo Copabianco, the Arpa project is unprecedented.
"It is the largest investment by a partnership involving governments, international funds, bilateral agencies, and civil society, and it will enable Brazil to possess a set of well-administered conservation units with permanent resources for their upkeep," he explains.
The Brazilian government signed a contract with the KfW (German Reconstruction Credit Bank) for the sum of 17 million euros.
The donated funds will be used for the acquisition of equipment and goods and services for the conservation units.
Agência Brasil
Translator: David Silberstein
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