The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are 17 global goals set by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) covering economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection. The SDGs were agreed upon by 193 countries at the UN, following broad participation from global civil society, and came into force on January 1, 2016.
Among the 17 SDGs, a subset of 13 goals can be identified to which the Amazon Fund contributes to a greater or lesser extent, either through each of the Fund's areas of action or in a cross-cutting manner.
Amazon Fund contributions to the SDGs through its four areas of action:
Area 1: Sustainable Productive Activities
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SDG 1 – End poverty in all its forms everywhere |
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SDG 2 – End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture |
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SDG 12 – Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns |
One of the main challenges addressed in the current phase of the PPCDAm (Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon) is "the consolidation of the sustainable productive activities axis as a driver for reducing deforestation and transforming the Amazonian reality", recognizing support for local production chains and socio-biodiversity economies as a requirement for forest conservation and for the social inclusion of the populations who make their living from it. As a contribution to SDGs 1, 2 and 12, the Amazon Fund supports, through its "sustainable productive activities" area, projects that promote food and nutritional security by increasing the production and sale of food by Indigenous peoples, traditional communities and smallholder farmers. Supported initiatives include, among others, the implementation of agroforestry systems (AFS), fishing agreements, processing units for socio-biodiversity products, certification of origin, training and business plan development, as well as research to develop new products from fruits, seeds and bioactive compounds of the Amazonian flora. These activities fight poverty by generating income from extractivism and agroecology, and serve as an alternative to activities that clear the forest. Since 2023, projects aimed at Indigenous peoples, quilombola and traditional communities may also include cross-sectoral actions, including in health, culture, education, sanitation and energy, among others.
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SDG 6 – Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all |
Many projects supported by the Amazon Fund prioritize the forest restoration of riparian forests and riparian areas, that is, the vegetation located along the banks of streams, lakes, reservoirs and springs. In addition, the Fund also supports social technologies and other initiatives aimed at expanding local communities' access to water and sanitation.
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SDG 8 – Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all |
One of the major challenges facing Brazilian society and the Amazon Fund is how to establish in the Amazon an economic model of production and land occupation that is environmentally sustainable, preserves biodiversity and promotes social well-being. To this end, the Fund has supported dozens of sustainable production projects that promote socio-biodiversity production chains, strengthening capacities and skills to provide local communities with an economic alternative that is compatible with keeping the forest standing, based on associativism and cooperativism.
Area 3: Land-Use Planning
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SDG 11 – Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable |
The Amazon Fund has contributed directly to safeguarding the world's natural and cultural heritage, as it aims to reduce deforestation together with promoting sustainable development in the Legal Amazon. To this end, the Fund supports actions that directly or indirectly safeguard the natural heritage represented by the forests, and is also a major funder of actions that value the tangible and intangible heritage of Indigenous peoples and other traditional peoples and communities, including the recovery, conservation and sustainable use of natural resources in their territories. The people of the forest are its main guardians and protagonists in consolidating a sustainable vision of development.
Multiple areas 1, 2 and 3: Sustainable Productive Activities; Monitoring and Control; and Land-Use Planning
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SDG 15 – Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss |
Under Area 1, the Amazon Fund supports sustainable forest use activities and the restoration of deforested and degraded areas.
Under Area 2, monitoring and control, projects help protect ecosystems and halt degradation and biodiversity loss caused by environmental crimes and forest fires, through actions to combat illegal activities, environmental enforcement, fire prevention and support to fire brigades, and satellite monitoring of deforestation in Brazil and in other South American countries bordering the Amazon.
Under Area 3, land-use planning, support for strengthening protected areas, whether sustainable-use conservation units or Indigenous and quilombola territories, involving the development and implementation of territorial management instruments, training, and territorial protection and surveillance, contributes to the sustainable management of forests. Since deforestation rates in protected areas are significantly lower than in other areas, supporting their expansion and consolidation is one of the most important tools for preventing deforestation.
Multiple areas 1, 2 and 4: Sustainable Productive Activities; Monitoring and Control; and Science, Innovation and Economic Instruments
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SDG 9 – Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation |
The Amazon Fund's support for sustainable productive activities seeks to enhance the processing and value addition of socio-biodiversity products, with the aim of generating income and offering alternatives to deforestation. Under Area 4, science, innovation and economic instruments, supported projects contribute to the development and implementation of better equipment and of production and management techniques to increase income from sustainable productive activities, as well as to the development of deforestation monitoring technologies used by public authorities in the actions supported mainly under Area 2.
The Fund's contribution through its cross-cutting action
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SDG 5 – Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls |
In all of its public calls for projects, the Amazon Fund requires applicants to set out strategies to include women and young people in activities directly related to the supported value chains, as well as to encourage women's presence in leadership positions.
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SDG 13 – Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts |
The Amazon Fund is the world's largest REDD+ initiative, internationally recognized according to several criteria, such as donations received and amounts approved for projects1. All resources applied by the Fund must contribute, directly or indirectly, to reducing deforestation, which is one of the main drivers of climate change.
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SDG 17 – Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development |
The Amazon Fund was created by Brazil in dialogue with the international community and relies on several partnerships, especially with the nine countries that had donated resources to the Fund by 2025. Today, the Amazon Fund is the main instrument of international cooperation with Brazil on the agenda of tackling deforestation and promoting sustainable development in the Amazon. Also noteworthy are the technical cooperation with GIZ2 and the Fund's support for an international project implemented by the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), aimed at monitoring forest cover across the Amazon region, including Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.
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SDG 18 – Eliminate racism and ethnic-racial discrimination against Indigenous peoples and people of African descent, especially population groups affected by multiple forms of discrimination |
In addition to the 17 SDGs established by the UN, Brazil proposed the creation of SDG 18 to promote ethnic-racial equality. SDG 18 is a voluntary goal pioneered by Brazil, aimed at eliminating racism and discrimination against Indigenous peoples and people of African descent. Proposed at the 78th UN General Assembly in 2023, it complements the 17 global SDGs, focusing on justice, reparation and social inclusion. Across all of its activities, the Amazon Fund seeks to value and prioritize support for Indigenous peoples, quilombolas and other traditional peoples and communities, and is an important mechanism for strengthening these peoples, so that they are recognized for the fundamental role and example they represent in biodiversity conservation and in the sustainable practices the world so greatly needs.