FAQ

It is an initiative of the Colombian government, which, with the financial support of the governments of Norway, Germany and the United Kingdom, seeks to reach the goal of net deforestation 0 in the Colombian Amazon by means of a sustainable development model that promotes protection strategies of forests and the sustainable use of natural resources, while empowering local communities and generating for them development alternatives and low levels of deforestation.

It is a system that compensates the effort of a country to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide equivalent, harmful to the environment and that are produced by the deforestation, in recognition of these reductions are granted financial resources to develop strategies that stop the deforestation and reduce emissions.

A more emissions reduction plus resources to curb deforestation.
Less emission reduction less resources to curb deforestation.

In the case of Colombia, the national government with the support of the governments of Norway, Germany and the United Kingdom developed the Amazon Vision program, establishing the system of payment for results with the goal of 0 net deforestation by 2020. For this purpose, deforestation average in the biome of the Colombian Amazon (zone of intervention of the Visión Amazonía Program) that between 2000 and 2012 was 82,863 hectares, which was defined as the reference level for compensation in the years to come. In this way, the country must join efforts not to exceed the reference level and especially to reduce it to reach the goal of net deforestation or to the year 2020. To achieve this goal, the governments that support the initiative have established a commitment of up to 125 million dollars in 5 years.

The intervention of the program has been prioritized by phases, first advancing in the actions of the fight against deforestation in the departments of Caqueta and Guaviare, where the problem is located with the greatest deforestation crisis in the Colombian Amazon. Subsequently will work in the departments of Putumayo, South of Meta, Guainía, Amazonas, Vichada and Vaupés, respectively.

The biome concept defines large and uniform environments, in Colombia five large Amazon, Andes, Caribbean, Orino, and Pacific biomes can be identified. The area covered by the Amazon Biome is delimited based on biogeographic criteria, mainly associated with the natural distribution of tropical rainforest in the Amazon, geomorphology and altitudinal ranges. Taking into account these criteria, the north-western limit corresponds to the so-called piedmont between 400-500 meters above sea level, where Andean and tropical elements of the Amazon and Orinoquia converge; the north-eastern limit corresponds to the northern boundary of the distribution of the tropical Amazon rainforest with the savannas of the Orinoquia; and to the east and south to the international borders with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Republic of Peru and the Republic of Ecuador. The distribution of the Amazon biome can be seen in the following figure (bnb2015_bioma.png). Implementing this definition, the Amazon biome corresponds to an area of ​​458,961 km2 corresponding to just over 40% of the Colombian continental territory.

Pillar 1 Forest Governance, Pillar 2 Sustainable Sector Development, Pillar 3 Agro-environmental Development, Pillar 4 Environmental Governance with Indigenous Peoples, and Pillar 5 Enabling Conditions are components of the Amazon Vision program through which it works to reduce deforestation in the Amazon These pillars work in an articulated way in the prioritized regions and with the support of various institutions of the national environmental system and other allied entities.

Pillar 1 Forest Governance: Improved coordination of institutions, forest management, planning, and command and control tools for forest management

Pillar 2 Sustainable Sectoral Development: It manages intersectoral and public-private agreements on infrastructure and extractive industries in the Amazon, promotes product development under deforestation and improves land use and land use zoning instruments. In addition, it will design and implement an incentive strategy for the Green Municipalities.

Pillar 3 Agro-environmental Development: Promotes sustainable and alternative production practices, strengthens productive chains of meat, milk, rubber, timber and non-timber cocoa, promotes productive alliances, and enables access to markets.

Pillar 4 Environmental Governance with Indigenous Peoples: Promotes indigenous environmental governance with respect to traditional practices, ensuring cultural diversity and forests in their territories.

Pillar 5 Enabling Conditions: Consolidates and implements the Consolidated Forest and Carbon Monitoring System (SMByC) and National Forest Inventory (IFN) with which it reports the actions and results of the program as a whole.

Refers to the relationship between forest loss (deforestation) and forest cover gains (eg, restoration or natural regeneration) to reach the goal of net deforestation or the sum of this ratio should be equal to 0.

They are the municipalities that develop productive initiatives and strategies that seek to mitigate or reduce deforestation. Because of this effort, these so-called green municipalities receive financial incentives to continue investing in actions and initiatives that reduce deforestation while at the same time fostering a system of sustainable social and economic development for the Amazon and its communities.

They are individual and collective lines of credit that contemplate economic incentives during and at the end of the credit, under agreements for the implementation of actions for the conservation of biodiversity.

It is an immediate reaction strategy to curb the engines of deforestation, including logging, illegal mining, extensive cattle ranching, illegal crops and forest fires, among others. Forest bubbles are established in the different departments of the Amazon where the phenomenon of deforestation occurs, and are made up of Governors, Military Forces, National Police, Prosecutor’s Office, Attorney General’s Office, National Parks and the corresponding environmental authority. Among its actions, the Bubble promotes strategies and action protocols to identify those most responsible for deforestation.

It is developed through articulated work between the executive committee of Amazon Vision led by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, the support of KfW development bank based in Frankfurt Germany, The technical team of the program that includes the leaders of the 5

pillars, focal points and international advisers, Natural Heritage Fund as the financial mechanism that manages program resources and implementing entities.

The Kingdom of Norway, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Federal Republic of Germany through the KfW bank.

The KfW development bank based in Frankfurt Germany is the guarantor of resources from donor governments for the implementation of the Amazon Vision Program. KfW grants No Objection (approval) to technical and financial reports, operational program manual (MOP) annual work plans and general work plan (PTAs, PTG) procurement procedures, quarterly and annual reports among others.

No, the program was designed and defined to develop its actions in the area covered by the Amazon Biome, which is delimited based on biogeographic criteria, mainly associated with the natural distribution of tropical rainforest in the Amazon, geomorphology and altitudinal ranges . Taking into account these criteria, the northwestern border corresponds to the so-called piedemonte between 400-500 msnm where Andean and tropical elements of the Amazon and Orinoquia converge.

No, Visión Amazônia does not contemplate reforestation strategies, but mitigation of deforestation, while promoting a system of social and economic development free of deforestation that represents growth opportunities for the municipalities of the region and their communities.