The safeguard of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil
Stand Up Forests is a project of ICEI, Lifegate and Avive to safeguard 560 hectares of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. The Brazilian government has assigned the area to 27 families of the San Pedro community, who participate in the project by raising awareness amongst citizens through activities geared towards preventing and contrasting deforestation, arson, illegal hunting activities and other environmental crimes.
Context
The intervention area is located within the municipality of Silva, 340 kilometres from Manaus, capital of Amazonas State. The 41 communities residing in this area live off fishing and agriculture, utilising local resources to survive without being able to generate enough income to improve their conditions.
The San Pedro community, along the Igarapé Capivara River, is composed of 27 families: nearly 150 people, including men, women and children. The place can only be reached via boat, there are no roads allowing to reach this area. Since 2003, the community of San Pedro has taken part in a project promoted by the Brazilian association AVIVE for sustainable production of vegetable oils. The activities covered by the project include mapping forest resources, setting up a small nursery to grow 5,000 plantlets/year, developing plans for proper use of natural resources, training in forestry and beekeping, collecting seeds of forest species, producing plantlets and copaiba oil.
The community of San Pedro has been recently included in a state programme on granting land plots for use: 27 plots of 50 Ha each (totalling 1,350 Ha) of land owned by the state have been granted to 27 households of the community to use a 20 per cent of them for productive activities (extracting forest resources and farming). The remaining 80 per cent is classified as strict nature reserve. The plots are assigned by the state through ITEAM (Instituto de terras do Amazonas).
Despite the fact that Brazilian law formally guarantees that 80% of the forest remain untouched by human exploitation, lack of resources such as public funding and personnel means that this portion of the forest is not granted with real protection. In order to stop this phenomenon from seriously threatening the forest’s integrity, it is necessary to take action: through surveillance activities, mapping of the forest’s resources, raising awareness and encouraging environmental education in San Pedro and surrounding communities.
- The San Pedro community, along the Igarapé Capivara River, composed of 27 families: nearly 150 people, including men, women and children
Wild expedition
A thousand-mile journey into the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, in close contact with nature and local communities, in order to see protected areas first-hand thanks to LifeGate and ICEI’s Stand Up Forests project.
The first expedition has been accomplished in March 2013 by the photojournalist Francesco Pistilli, travels and Latin America enthusiast, who had the opportunity to observe in first person, supporting with beautiful images the report of the safeguard project. Through his work, the ICEI and LifeGate community has experienced strong emotions, discovering the fascination of these uncontaminated lands, where 27 families live.
The main purpose of the Wild Expedition is sharing passion, effort and results, giving also the opportunity to keep in touch with people. In fact, they are the real protagonists of the Stand Up Forests project, because the environmental safeguard has a positive impact on local people’s life, which is strictly linked to the forests.
You can support the Stand Up Forests initiative and contribute to the safeguard of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil through a simple donation (reason for payment: Stand Up Forests). For each donation ICEI will send a digital certificate.