*Brazil’s state-owned development bank (BNDES) has announced that the European Union (EU) will donate R$120m (US$21m) to the Amazon Fund, Brazil’s financing mechanism for rainforest protection and sustainable development initiatives. The state development bank of Germany (KfW) has also announced that it will transfer R$88m to the fund. Last week Brazil’s environment minister, Marina Silva, met with Germany’s minister for economic cooperation and development, Svenja Schulze, and Norway’s international development minister, Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, in the northern state of Pará to inaugurate new conservation and forestry centres. The initiatives overseen by Brazilian authorities in Pará, such as the ‘Floresta Ativa Tapajós’ programme, receive investment from the Amazon Fund. According to BNDES, the Amazon Fund currently has R$3.9bn and is financing 114 projects.