A $72 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will boost the forestry and agroforestry sectors of the Brazilian Amazon state of Acre.

Noodls reports that the loan is the second stage of a sustainable development program aimed at reducing poverty and curbing deforestation. It will support measures such as land tenure regularization and the development of a forest concession system to generate business opportunities in the sustainable supply of timber and non-timber forest products and ecosystem services from protected areas.

The project will support 8,000 rural producers to join sustainable agroforestry value chains.

“The project will also provide technical assistance, financial support and basic infrastructure to help rural producers gain access to viable forestry value chains,” says the article.

In a first for Brazil, the project will help to establish a $60 million private equity fund supported by a state government. The fund will finance commercial reforestation projects, opening up opportunities for partnerships between the public sector, smallholders and competitive value chains.

Capacity building activities will be undertaken to improve the state government’s ability in areas of land titling and administration, environmental licensing, monitoring, law enforcement and forest management.

It is estimated that the project will boost the contribution of the forestry sector to economic growth by 6 per cent and income of rural households by 12 per cent.

Read the full story: IDB to support second phase of successful program to reduce poverty and promote sustainable forestry