Contacts: Brasília – Denise Marinho (+55-61) 3329-1099 dmarinho@worldbank.org Washington – Gabriela Aguilar (+1 202) 473-6768 gaguilar2@worldbank.org WASHINGTON, September 23, 2009 – While Brazil already is showing clear signs of economic recovery after suffering the impact of the global financial crisis, the World Bank approved yesterday a US$24.3 million loan for Phase II of the Second National Environmental Project (NEP) to support efforts to enhance the environment and sustain economic growth. "Environmental concerns have become central to public policies in Brazil, and this project is a reflection of this," said Carlos Minc, Brazil´s minister of environment. "The NEP II initiative has proven that it is possible to achieve important improvements to environmental management at all government levels, integrated with the social and economic sectors. In this new stage, the program will have a total budget of US$34.7 million, of which about US$17 million will help improve environmental licenses in the federal agencies (IBAMA, ANA and ICMBio) and state agencies, as part of the country's sustainable development goals." Brazil has historically based its economy on its immense natural resources wealth. A significant part of its economy relies on the use of natural resources, whether as production inputs or as sinks for production waste. Despite the importance of its natural assets, growth in Brazil has often had negative environment impacts, such as water and air pollution in urban and industrial areas, loss or degradation of forests and ecosystems, and soil loss. These issues end up limiting the country´s future growth potential. Phase 2 of NEP II will help states and the federal government to reduce some of the costs associated with environmental degradation and to promote an environmentally and socially sustainable growth pattern in Brazil. “As the economy recovers from the crisis, the project will be especially important to help Brazil attain higher growth in a way that is sustainable in the long term,” said Makhtar Diop, World Bank Country Director for Brazil. “In the past few years, Brazil has demonstrated that growth and protection of key environmental concerns, such as the Amazon, is possible. This project is evidence of Brazil´s commitment to this development path.” The new phase will consolidate the progress made in environmental capacity in key Brazilian institutions. It will enhance the environmental management capacity of environmental institutions at the federal, state and municipal levels and by demonstrating the effectiveness of targeted subprojects focused on priorities determined by States. The project has three core components: · Institutional Development, strengthening environmental licensing policies and procedures at the federal, state and municipal levels; environmental quality monitoring; and economic instruments for environmental management; · Integrated Management of Environmental Assets providing an incentive to states to identify, rank and address some of their most pressing environmental challenges; and · Coordination, Dialogue and Communication supporting a unit with the technical and administrative capacity needed to manage subprojects and activities at a decentralized level. “Since 2002, the government´s environmental program has had four major pillars: decentralization, strengthening of the National Environmental System, social control and integrating environmental issues in all government actions,” said Adriana Moreira, Senior Environmental Specialist and World Bank Project Manager. “The first phase of the program contributed significantly to each one of these pillars, and NEP II is currently the main mechanism to strengthen the capacity at the local, state and Federal levels for environmental management including licensing.” Phase 1 of the Second National Environmental Project was implemented from 2000 to 2006, with US$9 million. It achieved numerous results including: · Twenty-five of the twenty-seven states identified environmental priorities to guide subprojects and interventions, and ten states had working water quality monitoring systems; · Seven additional states (AC, CE, GO, MG, MT, PB and SC) had digital licensing systems, making the licensing process more transparent and efficient. This also transformed the licensing process into a tool for environmental management; There were forty-three specific subprojects in 17 states, leading to improvements in decentralized environmental management. For additional information on the project, please visit: http://web.worldbank.org/external/projects/main?Projectid=P099469&Type=Financial&theSitePK=40941&pagePK=64330670&menuPK=64282135&piPK=64302772 For more information on the World Bank in Brazil, please visit: http://www.worldbank.org/br |
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