The Amazon Fund, in addition to evaluations of completed projects published in its annual report and on this website, promotes independent evaluations of the effectiveness of the actions it supports.
With the completion of the first supported projects, a conceptual framework named Impact Evaluations of Projects Supported by the Amazon Fund was created to guide the independent evaluation teams on the minimum standards to be applied in these project evaluations, establishing a procedure that ensures a degree of comparability between different evaluations.
With the increase in the number of completed projects, it was identified that evaluating them in thematic blocks according to their objectives would produce important inputs for the aggregation of the results and impacts achieved by them and for the identification of joint contributions to achieve the objectives of the Amazon Fund. An Addendum to the Conceptual Framework was developed to guide these thematic evaluations
A mid-term evaluation of the effectiveness of the Amazon Fund, covering the period from 2008 to 2018, was carried out by a team of independent consultants and completed in 2019, with technical coordination from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean - ECLAC, of the United Nations (UN). This evaluation included two complementary thematic studies. The three reports can be checked at the following links:
Amazon Fund benefit distribution study
Thematic study of the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) projects supported by the Amazon Fund
See in the table below the group of projects that make up the Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Projects to Combat Forest Fires and Unauthorized Burning supported by the Amazon Fund / BNDES
|
Name of the project |
Project Management |
| The State of Acre: Zero Forest Fires | State of Acre/State of Acre Military Firefighters (CBMAC) |
|
Forest Firefighters of Mato Grosso |
State of Mato Grosso |
|
Pará Combating Forest Fires and Unauthorized Burn-offs |
State of Pará/State of Pará Military Firefighters (CBMPA) |
|
Forest Protection in the State of Tocantins |
State of Tocantins, having as executor the State of Tocantins Military Firefighters (CBMTO) |
See in the table below the group of projects that make up the Thematic Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Scientific and Technological Development Projects supported by the Amazon Fund / BNDES
| Name of the project | Project Management |
| Amazon Bioactive Compounds | Federal University of Pará (UFPA) and Research Development and Support Foundation (Fadesp) |
| Amazon Public Policy Incubator | Federal University of Pará (UFPA) and the Research Development and Support Foundation (Fadesp) |
| Belém Islands | Federal University of Pará (UFPA) and the Research Development and Support Foundation (Fadesp) |
| Biodiversity | Federal University of Pará (UFPA) and the Research Development and Support Foundation (Fadesp) |
| Mangrove Forests | Federal University of Pará (UFPA) and the Research Development and Support Foundation (Fadesp) |
See in the table below the group of projects that make up the Evaluation of the Effectiveness of State Environmental Agencies Projects supported by the Amazon Fund / BNDES
| Name of the project | Project Management |
|
Reforestation in the southern part of Amazonas State |
State of Amazonas |
|
Semas Pará |
State of Pará |
See in the table below the group of projects that make up the Effectiveness Evaluation of Sustainable Productive Activities (APS) supported by the Amazon Fund / BNDES
|
Nome do projeto |
Responsável |
| APL Babassu | Association of Settlement Areas in the State of Maranhão (ASSEMA) |
| Sustainable Fishing | World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Brazil |
| Amazon Backyards |
Center for the Study of Culture and the |
| Forest Sentinels |
Vale do Amanhecer Farmers’ Cooperative |
| Productive Sociobiodiversity in the Xingu |
Socioenvironmental Institute (ISA) |
See in the table below the group of projects that make up the Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Projects on Indigenous people supported by the Amazon Fund / BNDES
|
Name of the project |
Project Management |
|
| Alto Juruá | Association of the Ashaninka of the Amônia River (Apiwtxa) | Click here |
| Sustainable Indigenous Amazon | Association in Defense of Ethno-environmental Kanindé | Click here |
| Arapaima: Productive Networks | Native Amazon Operation (OPAN) | Click here |
| Value Chains in Indigenous Lands in Acre | Acre Pro-Indigenou People Comission (CPI-Acre) | Click here |
| Implementing Environmental Management In Indigenous Lands | Environmental Conservation Institute - The Nature Conservancy of Brazil (TNC Brazil) | Click here |
| Ethnoenvironmental Protection of Uncontacted and recently Contacted Indigenous Peoples in the Amazon |
Indigenous Work Center (CTI)
|
Click here |
See in the table below the group of projects that make up the Effectiveness Evaluation Report on Land-use Planning Projects supported by the Amazon Fund / BNDES
| Name of the project | Project Management | |
| Training to Conserve | Amazon Conservation Team (ECAM) | Click here |
| Strengthening Environmental Management in the Amazon | Amazon Institute of Man and Environment (Imazon) | Click here |
See in the table below the group of projects that make up the Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Amazon Fund's Municipal Projects
| Name of the project | Project Management |
| Buriti Springs | Municipality of Carlinda |
| Amazon's Water Springs Project - Phase II | Municipality of Alta Floresta |
| Preserving Porto dos Gaúchos | Municipality of Porto dos Gaúchos |
| Environmental Qualification and Management Program - PQGA | Brazilian Institute of Municipal Administration (Ibam) |
| Recovering Marcelândia | Municipality of Marcelândia |
| New Paths in Cotriguaçu | Municipality of Cotriguaçu |
See in the table below the group of projects that make up the Effectiveness Evaluation of Sustainable Productive Activities projects of Agglutinating Entities in the Amazon Fund / BNDES
| Name of the project | Project Management | |
| Materialize | Association of Small Agro-farmers in the Reca Project | Click here |
| Strengthening the Forest Based Sustainable Economy | Extraction Commercialization Central Cooperative for the State of Acre (Cooperacre) | Click here |
| Small Eco-Social Projects in the Amazon | Society, Population and Nature Institute (ISPN) | Click here |
| Dema Fund | Federation of Agencies for Social and Educational Assistance (Fase) | Click here |
See in the table below the individual effectiveness evaluations (ex-post) of concluded projects sponsored by the Amazon Fund/BNDES.
|
Name of the project |
Project Management |
|
|
Amazon Water Springs |
Municipality of Alta Floresta/MT |
Click here |
|
Dissemination and Improvement of Sustainable Forest Management Techniques |
Tropical Forest Institute (IFT) | Click here |
|
Forest Assistance Program |
Sustainable Amazon Foundation (FAS) | Click here |
|
Going Green |
TNC Brasil – The Nature Conservancy do Brasil |
|
|
Importance of Forest Environmental Assets |
State of Acre |
|
|
Portal Seeds |
Ouro Verde Institute (IOV) |
|
|
Socio-environmental Management in Municipalities of Pará |
Amazon Institute for People and the Environment (Imazon) |
There is also the case of a project supported by the Amazon Fund ("Protected Areas of the Amazon - ARPA - Phase 2"), which was evaluated by the organization responsible for its implementation (Brazilian Fund for Biodiversity - Funbio) and WWF-Brazil. This impact assessment comprised a longer period (2005/2015) than that of the Amazon Fund's support (2010/2014) and can be checked by clicking here (complete evaluation in Portuguese) and here (summary of evaluation in English).
In 2016, KfW – the German Development Bank that is one of the Amazon Fund's donors – carried out an ex-post evaluation of the Amazon Fund. The KfW noted that it was not a definitive evaluation, since the Amazon Fund continues to operate and has a portfolio of projects that, in most cases, are in the execution phase.
The objective was to evaluate the viability of the Amazon Fund’s concept, its award mechanism and the strategic direction of the project portfolio. It was concluded that the Fund has become one of the pillars supporting the national plan to combat deforestation in the Amazon biome (PPCDAm), that its projects portfolio implements the elements of a REDD+ strategy effectively and that it has the potential to follow on from Brazil’s accomplishments in fighting deforestation and complement them with forest protection and sustainable production measures.
In this evaluation five aspects of the Fund’s operation were observed and classified: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability of results. The overall rating of these aspects assigned grade 2 in the general classification of the Amazon Fund's operation, that is, the second highest grade in a scale of 1 to 6. That means, according to KfW's evaluation, that the Amazon Fund’s performance is good, fully in line with expectations and without significant shortcomings. Click here to acess KfW's evaluation.