Photo: Archive FUNBIO

hydroelectric stations, mining operations and logging are putting enormous pressure on the region’s biodiversity. Kayapó territories, which cover some 11 million hectares (an area roughly the size of Iceland) in the south of Pará and north of Mato Grosso, lie at the heart of this devastation.

The Kayapó Fund channels donations into supporting projects by indigenous organizations from this region, with a focus on biodiversity conservation, territorial protection, sustainable agriculture and stronger political representation by Kayapó leaders.

Set up in 2011, the Kayapó Fund has USD 13.1 million under contract from Conservation International’s Global Conservation Fund (GCF) and from the Amazonia Fund, through the Brazilian National Development Bank (BNDES). In addition to managing these resources, FUNBIO is responsible for the KF’s asset management and also exercises the role of executive secretary on both of its decision-making bodies: the Donors Commission and the Technical Commission.

Five projects by three different indigenous organizations—the Protected Forest Association, the Raoni Institute and the Kabu Institute—have been supported so far and three new projects kicked off in 2017.