The Fund was designed to operate five different portfolios. The purpose of the most important one is to execute projects with resources from compensations provided by large industrial enterprises. The Fund also administrates donations from national and international sponsors, as well as a permanent endowment fund to back the costs of state conservation units such as parks, biological reserves, and ecological stations. This is precisely one of the Fund’s great innovations: the possibility of raising funds from different sources.

Studies carried out to identify potential resources for the Fund demonstrated that approximately R$75 million were available, provided by operations already licensed, giving a conservative estimate, for the subsequent four years, of R$100 million. Before designing the FMA, Funbio also carried out analyses on the legal framework of environmental compensations, possible areas for investment in the state, the situation of the Protected Areas, and the management structure of the institutions involved.