AMABIO: supporting the financing of the bioeconomy in the Amazon

Amazon countries, which include Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, are among the countries that hold the richest biodiversity on the planet. Yet the socio-economic potential of this unique biodiversity remains underexploited. At the same time, the Amazon ecosystem is subject to strong pressures that deteriorate all its socio-economic services.

The sectors of the bioeconomy provide a potential solution to the environmental and social challenges in the Amazon. These sectors can generate profits through the marketing of products from functional biodiversity. They thereby also promote practices that conserve this biodiversity.

Developing these sectors, ensuring their viability, and commercialising them is a complex process. It requires a dedicated range of financing, institutional support, which is currently not sufficiently organised, and specific sectoral support.  

During the visit to Brazil by French President Emmanuel Macron in March 2024, the French and Brazilian Presidents announced the launch of an extensive investment programme for the bioeconomy, amounting to €1 billion, for the Brazilian and Guyanese Amazon.   

The AMABIO project is part of this programme. It aims to contribute to the new action plan of the France-Brazil partnership, which is based on two pillars: the protection of peoples and the commitment to a sustainable planet, and the roadmap on the bioeconomy and the protection of tropical forests.

The AMABIO project aims to structure the financing of the bioeconomy and improve innovative sustainable finance practices in the countries of the Amazon Basin. It will initially focus on Brazil, but a second phase will also cover Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

In addition to the loans allocated by AFD to public banks in the region (Brazilian development bank - BNDES et Banco da Amazônia - BASA), the project will work on the following three components:

• Creation of an innovation, investment and technology-sharing hub for the bioeconomy in the Amazon
• Support for partner public banks to structure financing for the bioeconomy
• Development of innovative initiatives to tackle deforestation and restore the natural heritage in vulnerable biomes

The AMABIO project follows on from other activities carried out by Expertise France in Latin America:

• EUROCLIMA+: Biodiversity, resilience of small producers, promotion of sustainable enterprises for the bioeconomy in the Amazon
• Amazonia+: Defence of indigenous peoples, preservation of forest governance
• LACIF Ecuador:Support for bioeconomy financing with the National Corporation of Popular and Solidarity Finance (CONAFIPS)