On May 21, 2014, the Brazilian government, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and partners announced the creation of a $215 million fund to ensure long-term protection of the world’s largest network of protected areas — 150 million acres of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest .
In the last ten years, this partnership effort has already resulted in almost 100 protected areas encompassing 128 million acres — a mix of tourist sites, biological research areas and sustainable use areas where local people can harvest natural resources. The challenge over the years, however, has always been long-term financing to properly manage these areas. The $215 million will be used as a transition fund to be paid out to Brazil over 25 years. During that time, Brazil will gradually increase its own contributions with the intention of establishing permanent financing.
Not only does a network of protected areas that size have immense conservation implications (carbon, freshwater, biodiversity, etc), it also presents a new model for large-scale conservation that can be applied in other countries.
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