en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) and the Bank of Northeast Brazil (BNB) have jointly launched the "Reecatingar Public Tender" to provide funding for ecological restoration projects on degraded Caatinga lands in Minas Gerais and other regions. The public call was officially launched this Wednesday (10th) at the Palácio do Planalto in Brasília, with a total allocation of BRL 60 million for initiatives such as community training, strengthening associations and cooperatives, agroecological practices, and water harvesting systems. Water storage projects, fencing for water source protection, and soil restoration and sustainable management actions are also eligible for funding.

This tender, conducted by BNDES and BNB in partnership with Brazil's Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MMA), is expected to support 15 to 25 projects, each covering an area between 50 and 100 hectares, with a maximum execution period of 60 months and a value per proposal ranging from BRL 2 million to BRL 4 million. In addition to Minas Gerais, municipalities in the states of Alagoas, Bahia, Ceará, Paraíba, Piauí, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte, and Sergipe are also eligible to apply, provided these areas have high levels of land degradation and are more vulnerable to drought and the advance of desertification. Proposals must provide counterpart funding equivalent to at least 5% of the requested amount, which can be in financial or non-financial form, such as personnel, materials, inputs, services, equipment, or infrastructure.

Eligible municipalities are determined based on the prioritization of the Caatinga and Desertification Observatory, considering land degradation and socioeconomic vulnerability, with priority given to cities classified as C5 (very high priority) and C4 (high priority). The selection process seeks to cover at least one project per state included in the tender, provided the proposals meet the minimum required score. Participating institutions must be non-profit legal entities under private law headquartered in Brazil, including civil associations, private foundations, and cooperatives, as well as federal and state legal entities under public law (excluding the federal government and its dependent entities that rely on federal budget transfers). Non-profit private institutions must have been legally established in Brazil for at least two years, and proposals may include partners such as universities, research institutions, and municipal governments.

Proposals must be submitted using an electronic spreadsheet provided by the Brazilian Foundation for Sustainable Development (FBDS). The tender features multiple consecutive rounds of public selection, including preliminary review, technical evaluation by a judging committee, and ranking of proposals based on criteria such as technical capacity, quality of restoration activities, cost, ecological impact, and social impact. During the launch ceremony of the Reecatingar Public Tender, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stated that the joint initiative by BNDES and BNB is crucial for Brazil to demonstrate to the world its ability to protect forests while producing food. He said: "But we must strive to make things happen. We need to ensure that forest conservation areas can generate income to sustain the livelihoods of those who care for these regions." Tereza Campello, BNDES' Director of Social and Environmental Affairs, stated that Reecatingar aims to support solutions built with community participation, integrating environmental restoration, sustainable production, water resources, income, and family retention in semi-arid regions. Environment Minister João Paulo Capobianco emphasized that merely stopping environmental degradation is not enough; restoration is also necessary. Through this public call, BNDES has already invested over BRL 1.28 billion in initiatives directly impacting the Caatinga and semi-arid regions, focusing on environmental restoration, climate change adaptation, water security, strengthening family farming, and productive inclusion.

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