Large Scale Restoration: Unlocking Private Finance for Pará’s PES Program –phase 2

The impacts of climate change are worsening every year, especially for the most vulnerable populations (Indigenous Peoples and Local  Communities and family farmers). The commitments made by the Brazilian Pará State government to address the climate crisis through large-scale forest restoration require strategies to attract private capital and scale up what is already being implemented through public policies. In this context, Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) is a promising mechanism that could significantly contribute to implementing nature-based solutions.

The main objective of the project is to provide an innovative solution for increased and sustained greenhouse gas (GHG) removals through scaled-up incentives for forest restoration and conservation in Pará State, with the potential to escalate the ambition of the state’s Amazon Now Plan and the Brazilian Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). The tools being developed to enable Afforestation, Reforestation, and Revegetation (ARR) projects for the voluntary market, if integrated into public policies at the state level, could generate a more inclusive business ecosystem by enabling the connection between ecosystem service providers and purchasers.

This business ecosystem can increase resilience to the impacts of climate change, especially for the most vulnerable populations. At this stage, it is expected to consolidate the structure of a State PES Programme with financial instruments for its implementation that can value benefits beyond the carbon removed by forest restoration and create the improvements in local capacities necessary to promote the expected changes.

The project expects to contribute to increased private sector financing is unlocked to promote Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) in Pará state, maximising large-scale forest restoration and conservation results, and promoting the inclusion of vulnerable populations through alignment with the State PES Program. It could also become a benchmark for Payment for Ecosystem Services programs throughout the Amazon, as it seeks to facilitate the valuation of multiple ecosystem services through private financing and partnerships aligned with public policies, prioritizing the most vulnerable populations from a socioeconomic and climate perspective.