The Role of Public Development Banks in Supporting Sustainable Development: The Case of Banco Da Amazonia

This article analyzes Banco da Amazônia’s role in financing sustainable projects in the Brazilian Amazon from 2003 to 2024. The study asks: Does the evidence confirm that Banco da Amazônia is fulfilling its mandate to finance sustainable projects in the Amazon region? The evidence – the bank’s historical evolution and financing policy between 2003 and 2024 – tends to confirm the main hypothesis that Banco da Amazônia is partially fulfilling this role but experiencing a ‘mission drift’. In fact, Banco da Amazônia mostly finances agricultural commodities (soy and cattle) that contribute to advancing the tropical resources frontier, and, to a lesser extent, sustainable projects. Thus, the public bank faces tension between a deep-rooted modus operandi aligned with sectors driving Amazon’s socio-ecological imbalances and a timid movement toward sustainable initiatives that remain peripheral to its core business. Although the article does not discuss in depth the reasons for ‘mission drift’, we suggest two main contributing factors: the path-dependent nature of Banco da Amazônia’s institutional behavior; and a lack of acceptance and implementation of the Sustainable Development Convention that guides public policies in the Amazon region, including the bank’s financing policy.