GTZ Brazil supports the German Federal Government and international organisations in implementing strategic partnerships to tackle global challenges – the Millennium Development Goals, climate change, conserving biodiversity, energy security and economic cooperation. Against this background, GTZ's engagement in Brazil concentrates on tropical forest protection, renewable energies and energy efficiency, integrated regional development and triangular cooperation..

Tropical forest protection

Brazil's efforts to protect the forests of the Amazon region and the Mata Atlântica focus on three structural deficits:

1. Legalisation of land and land use rights
2. Enforcement of legal norms
3. Creation of economic opportunities for local people.

Contracts from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the German Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) aim to support Brazil's efforts in this regard:

• Zonification planning and regional development in the Amazon region (BMZ)
• Promotion of conservation areas and sustainable forest use (BMZ)
• Designation and protection of indigenous areas (BMZ)
• Implementation of the Brazilian fund to protect the rainforest and help combat climate change (BMZ)
• Protected areas: contributions to emissions reduction and adaptation to climate change (BMU)
• Forest protection in Atlantic Forest, II – Mata Atlântica II (BMU)
• Demonstration projects PD/A and PDPI (GTZ International Services/ KfW Entwicklungsbank).

On behalf of the BMZ and the Netherlands Directorate-General for International Cooperation (DGIS), the Amazon regional programme is assisting the Permanent Secretariat of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), which isbased in Brazil, with the cross-border efforts of the Amazon basin states to protect the tropical rainforest.

Renewable energy and energy efficiency

In this priority area, the objectives of the German ministries BMZ and BMU are to increase Brazil's enormous potential to use wind power, solar thermal energy, photovoltaic cells and biogas, and to harness these energy sources for the electrification of rural areas, while decoupling economic development and energy consumption by promoting greater energy efficiency:

• Clean Development Mechanism – Joint Implementation (CDM-JI) Initiative (BMU)
• 1,000 roofs programme (BMU)
• ELECTROSUL solar project (BMU)

Integrated regional development

Sustainable business linkages for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) , marketable smallholder production and federal plans to combat desertification are the core elements of a BMZ contract for the environmentally compatible social and economic integration of people and regions:

• Integrated regional development programme (BMZ)

German-Brazilian triangular cooperation

Brazil has signed general agreements on technical cooperation with 53 countries, for which it has allocated an annual budget of more than USD 60 million (2009). GTZ implements projects on behalf of BMZ together with Brazilian partners where the combination of Germany's and Brazil's strengths brings added value for the beneficiary countries. In addition, these agreements are helping to strengthen the international departments of Brazil’s most important implementing agencies and the Brazilian Agency for Technical Cooperation (ABC). A common platform is also being set up for international exchanges of experience.

• German-Brazilian triangular cooperation programme (BMZ)
  

On behalf of BMZ and the British Department for International Development (DFID), GTZ, is working in triangular cooperation arrangements with its Brazilian counterparts to, support third countries’ national programmes to combat the AIDS pandemic .

Cooperation with the private sector

Development needs the private sector and development partnerships with private-sector companies forms a core element of GTZ's work in Brazil.

• Overview of GTZ's development partnerships in Brazil