From the Newsroom*
São Paulo – The German Development Bank (KFW) is going to invest 8 million euros, equivalent to 21 million Brazilian reais, in the Minas Gerais Atlantic Forest Protection Program (Promata), whose objective is the recovery and recomposing of the remaining Atlantic Forest in the Brazilian state.
This is the second phase of the program, financed through an un-payable loan, already approved by the External Financing commission of the Planning Ministry (Cofiex). The talks that resulted in the concession of funds were closed, last week, in Frankfurt, Germany, by the Environment and Sustainable Development secretary of Minas Gerais, José Carlos Carvalho.
The Promata was implemented in 2003 and has already received a total of 50 million Brazilian reais (19 million euros). Still in Frankfurt, the secretary gave a talk at the International Wood Bioenergy Conference, promoted by the International Tropical Timber Organization – ITTO and by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), about a the Minas Gerais experience in production of charcoal from forests planted for use as energy inputs.
*Translated by Mark Ament
