An amendment to the Constitution proposed by senator Jefferson Péres (PDT-AM), which creates the Fund for Western Amazon Development, is among the seven priority proposals currently under analysis at National Congress, says a report by the Joint Special Committee on Climate Change. The document was approved in a meeting on Wednesday (16).

The proposal (PEC 19/00) envisions a fund with the purpose of promoting Western Amazon economic development in a manner compatible with its environmental protection. The resources collected by the fund will be designed for local benefits in municipalities of Amazonas, Acre and Roraima states, with the exception of their respective capitals. The report stresses that the proposal is destined to prevent the installment of a predatory model of natural resource exploitation within the Western Amazon, a region of the Amazon that registers the lowest records of deforestation.

The report also includes the complementary bill by licensed senator Marina Silva – current Environmental Minister – which creates a reserve from the Participation Fund of States and of the Federal District (FPE) destined for the federal units that shelter, in their territories, units of nature conservation and also demarcated indigenous’ lands. The proposal is under analysis at the Chamber of Deputies (PLP 351/02)

The proposal promotes a FPE redistribution so that 84% will be destined for the North, Northeast and Central West; 14% to the South and Southeast and 2% aiming at the constitution of a FPE reserve to be distributed to states where there are conservation units and demarcated indigenous’ lands.