Organizations call for R$2 billionof socio-envionmental funds to be made available for the combat of the effects of the pandemic
A letter addressed to the BNDES is demanding concrete measures to avoid funding for deforestation and a review of the Bank´s socio-environmental policy
04/08/2020 Development and socio-environmental rights
Brasília (13/06/2018) –Ibama and the State Secretary for the Environment (SEMA) in Mato Grosso, with the support of the Integrated Centre of Aerial Operations
Fifty civil society organisations released a letter on Tuesday (4) addressed to the BNDES (National Development Bank) calling for the institution to free up R$2 billion, managed by the state bank and currently inactive in the Fundo Amazônia, Fundo Clima and Fundo Social.
The organisations are also calling for new measures to block funding to areas with illegal deforestation and greater stringency for loans for projects that have a social and environmental impact. The request comes in the midst of the pandemic caused by the new coronavirus, when the bank, created for social development, has a fundamental role in economic recovery.
“In a pandemic like the one we are experiencing it is even more vital for an institution such as the BNDES to fulfil its role of supporting an inclusive development model, that does not have an impact on socio-environmental rights or lead to violations and that contributes to reducing the structural inequality in Brazilian society.” Said Julia Neiva, Coordinator of Development and Socio-environmental Rights at Conectas. “The Bank must assume this role with greater transparency, the participation of civil society and more responsibility for its actions.”
The letter will be presented during a virtual event to be held on Tuesday at 3pm by the Frente Parlamentar Ambientalista (Environmental Parliamentary Front), the Frente Parlamentar Mista em Defesa dos Direitos dos Povos Indígenas (The Mixed Parliamentary Front in Defence of the Rights of Indigenous People) and the Frente Parlamentar dos ODS (Parliamentary Front for Sustainable Development Objectives). The meeting will be attended by Mr Luciano Coutinho, President of the BNDES from May 2007 to May 2016 and Mr Arthur Koblitz, President of the BNDES Employees Association.
According to the organisations, in recent decades, the National Development Bank has been adopting a pattern of investment that reinforces social inequality, violates the rights of communities and exploits ecosystems in an unsustainable fashion, as seen in the loans granted for works at Hydroelectric Plants in Amazonia.
“In the pandemic, the country is seeing federal government´s inability to handle the public health crisis, states and municipalities going deeper into debt and public policies being undermined through lack of resources (…). This deficit calls for a state bank that is up to the huge task of changing the development paradigm itself and overcoming outdated models of economic growth that ignore social and environmental impacts, which particularly affect the most vulnerable groups of people.” Says the open letter.
The document goes on to say that the current scenario is an opportunity to do things differently. “Millions of people are being thrown into poverty and extreme poverty and black people are proportionately more affected. Hundreds of businesses, that are the only source of a family´s income, are disappearing, along with thousands of occupations and jobs.” Finally, it concludes that, it is now fundamental for the BNDES to promote true social development.
“There is a rich local, community-based economy, with a strong characteristic of identity and creativity. It is feminist, indigenous, black, young and from the periphery. This needs to be stimulated and strengthened.” The text stresses.
The organisations that signed the letter include: Instituto de Estudos Socioeconômicos, Conectas, International Rivers, Instituto Sociedade, População e Natureza, Instituto de Defesa do Consumidor, Observatório do Clima, Instituto Socioambiental.
BNDES Funds
Values administered by the bank for socioenvironmental investment
(*) This total would be higher if the government carried out the transfers that were authorised in the 2020 budgetary laws, equivalent to $232.84 million
