Federal University of Pará (UFPA) and the Research Development and Support Foundation (Fadesp)
To develop an interdisciplinary research project on the socioeconomic and environmental impacts resulting from the expansion of the economic frontier in the Amazon, within the scope of the Amazon Public Policies Incubator, linked to the Research Forum and Graduate Programme in Sustainable Development of the Amazon
UFPA, the scientific community, and the Brazilian Amazon population
All the states in the Amazon biome
The Amazon High Studies Nucleus (NAEA) is a graduate center linked to the UFPA, whose main lines of research are: Society, Regional Development and Public Policies; Regional Economy and Sustainable Development; and Environmental Management and Ecosystem Management.
Additionally, NAEA is responsible for the executive secretariat of the Sustainable Amazon Forum for Research and Graduate Studies on the Sustainable Development of the Amazon, which gathers graduate programs of the nine states in the Amazon to develop topics concerning public policies and regional sustainable development.
Linked to this Forum is the Amazon’s Public Policy Incubator, whose mission is to contribute to conceiving, establishing, accompanying and assessing public policy on sustainable development for the region, relying on scientific knowledge, traditional wisdom and official participation of regional actors.
The Amazon Public Policies Incubator project was coordinated by NAEA and implemented within the framework of this incubator, involving public universities of the nine states in the Brazilian Amazon.
The project carried out interdisciplinary research on the socioeconomic and environmental impacts from the expansion of the Amazon’s economic frontier.
The first stage of the research was conducted in all states of the Brazilian Amazon from secondary sources data and generated indicators and information that pointed to the mesoregions in each of those states with the highest socio-environmental vulnerability. The idea of socio-environmental vulnerability incorporates several economic, social, political, institutional and environmental aspects that determine the ability of the mesoregion to prevent deforestation and articulate its sustainable development.
In the second stage of research, an action-research was conducted with representatives of social, economic, educational and political local institutions, in order to analyze the ecological, economic and social system; the socioeconomic dynamics; recent experiences of natural resources management in each mesoregion; and to propose priority actions to overcome the problems identified.
The supported project was inserted in the component scientific and technological development (4) of the Amazon Fund’s Logical Framework. The outcome, which defined the immediate impacts that the project sought to identify, was defined as follows: capacity and performance of public and private organizations engaged in the prevention of deforestation and on social and environmental management of the strengthened Amazonian states and municipalities (4.2).
While investigating the impacts of the economic border expansion in the nine states of Brazilian Amazon and applying the methodology named action research in the mesoregions with higher social and environmental vulnerability,
the project produced information and identified priority actions to reduce the vulnerability of these places, as well as stimulated collective processes that help preventing and reducing deforestation in the Amazon, which is the general
objective of the Amazon Fund.
Click on the following image to view its objectives tree, that is, how the project's outputs and linked to the expected outcomes and impact.
| Date of approval | 08.02.2011 |
| Date of the contract | 12.09.2011 |
| Date of conclusion | 06.30.2016 | Disbursement period | 24 months (from the date the contract was signed) |
| date | amount | |
|---|---|---|
| 1º disbursements | 02.16.2012 | R$692,994.70 |
| 2º disbursements | 10.26.2012 | R$566,989.50 |
| 3º disbursements | 06.13.2013 | R$706,118.70 |
| 4º disbursements | 11.27.2013 | R$737,982.00 |
| 5º disbursements | 12.01.2016 | -R$43,517.67 |
| Total amount disbursed | R$2,660,567.23 |
The project conducted a research that, in an integrated way, included the socioeconomic and environmental impacts from the expansion of the economic frontier of the nine states of Brazilian Amazon. The research results were consolidated in reports organized in a compilation named the Amazon Regional Formation, consisting of four volumes: 1. Institutional formation of the Amazon; 2. Amazon socioeconomic Formation; 3. Amazon socioenvironmental formation; and 4. Amazon municipalities sustainability.
The research was composed by activities of identification, characterization and analysis of the capacity and performance of the institutions responsible for social-environmental management in the Brazilian Amazon states, by institutional mapping in the period from 1960 to 2010. The results were consolidated in the first book of the mentioned collection.
An assessment of the relationship between institutional development, economic development, quality of life, and deforestation in the Amazon was developed by the analysis of socioeconomic dynamics and environmental impacts from the expansion process of the Brazilian economic border in the nine states of Brazilian Amazon, in the period from 1960 to 2010. To this end, ten studies were carried out, one for the Brazilian Amazon and nine for each one of the Brazilian Amazonian states. These studies were consolidated in the second book of the aforementioned compilation.
Ten studies to identify, describe and analyze the legally protected areas (including indigenous lands) and public and private initiatives of preservation and management of natural resources were also carried out – one for the Amazon and nine for each one of its states. These studies are in the third volume of the compilation.
Still within the framework of the first stage of the research, the Sustainability Index of the Municipalities of the Amazon (ISMA) was structured and calculated for the Amazon municipalities. This index, which points out the degree of socio-environmental vulnerability of the municipalities, was calculated using the weight of a number of indicators, divided into four dimensions: economic, environmental, political and institutional, and sociocultural.
The 2010 ISMA methodology, dimensions and indicators, as well as the calculation for the Brazilian Amazon municipalities are listed in the fourth volume.
After defining ISMA and comparing it with the other research analyses, the most critical mesoregions in each state of the Brazilian Amazon were identified, i.e., the mesoregions more vulnerable to deforestation and environmental degradation. A baseline municipality was also selected, where the second phase of the research was carried out.
The most critical state mesoregions and the municipalities selected were: Acre (Vale do Juruá – municipality of Cruzeiro do Sul); Amapá (Amapá North region – municipality of Oiapoque); Amazonas (South Amazon – Lábrea); Mato Grosso (Mato Grosso North region – Alta Floresta); Maranhão (Center Region – Grajaú); Pará (Marajó – Breves); Rondônia Madeira-Guaporé – Guajará Mirim); Roraima (South – Mucajaí); Tocantins (West – Tocantinópolis).
In the second stage of the research (action research), local management committees of the Amazon Public Policies Incubator were formed through the mobilization of the social actors of each mesoregion. These committees had the participation of researchers and various regional actors, including academic representatives from the most vulnerable mesoregions; the municipalities’ city halls; the legislative power of these municipalities; state and Federal Government organizations operating in those mesoregions; indigenous peoples and quilombola communities; productive associations; rural producers’ labor unions; and other civil society organizations from these mesoregions.
In this collaborative process, the main problems of the political and institutional, economical, sociocultural, and environmental dimensions of the nine mesoregions were identified. Priority actions to overcome their problems were also proposed. In the economical dimension, for example, the main products and economic chains of these mesoregions with high potential for economic expansion were identified. For this purpose, the demand by the consumer market for products and services of these mesoregions, the environmental viability of large-scale exploitation and the social capital for its development and other aspects were evaluated.
It should be highlighted that the action-research methodology approximated researchers and the population. The events had the participation of local communities and their representative organizations, thus giving the opportunity to these communities to discuss their problems in a collective way. This enabled a better understanding of the problems, as well as an assessment of its magnitude considering how many times it was mentioned by the public.
The action-research results on the municipalities’ sustainability and the nine mesoregions vulnerability are in the fourth volume of the Amazon Regional Formation collection, where the reader can also find information on ISMA and the data for 711 municipalities in the Brazilian Amazon (2010).
The project led to formal technical cooperation between NAEA, from the Federal University of Pará, and other twenty graduate programs that focus on sustainable regional development from11 universities in Brazilian Amazon:
Federal University of Pará; Federal University of Amazonas; Federal University of Mato Grosso; Federal University of Amapá; Federal University of Rondônia; Federal University of Tocantins; Federal University of Acre; Federal University
of Roraima; State University of Mato Grosso; State University of Maranhão; and University of Amazônia. This cooperation enabled the institutionalization of the Amazon Public Policies Incubator in a public ceremony that took place at the Federal University of Pará in 2011.
In addition to the formalization of this network between the universities, a management committee of the project was formed with one general coordinator and nine coordinators from the regional centers of the Amazon Public Policies Incubator, among others.
The project activities contributed to the results of the component Scientific and Technological Development (4) of the Amazon Fund’s Logical Framework.
Scientific and Technological Development – Component (4)
Outcome 4.2: Capacity and performance of public and private organizations engaged in the deforestation prevention and in social and environmental management of the strengthened Amazon states and municipalities.
The main output indicators established for monitoring this objective were:
The main impact indicators established for monitoring this objective were:
This set of indicators shows that the Amazon Public Policies Incubator project, coordinated by NAEA and implemented within the scope of this incubator, managed to achieve its objectives, producing quality research that was documented in a collection of books available for the academia, public administrators and the general public. In addition, through integrating events, the results achieved were broadly disseminated, including a sustainability indicators system of the Amazon municipalities, which was developed as part of the research.
Finally, the supported project enabled the deployment of nine regional committees of the Amazon Public Policies Incubator, promoting greater integration of universities and research centers with local populations. This expanded the regional ability of designing, formulating, monitoring and evaluating the public policies for the Amazon sustainable development.
Moreover, the knowledge generated by this research is available for those interested in the Amazon region development, having already supported the work developed by the Amazon Fund itself in the analysis and grant of
financial support to projects.
It is possible to promote an approximation between regional universities and local populations in the Amazon through systematic and permanent articulation with the three Government levels working in the region, the productive sector, and civil society. The research and institutionalization of the Amazon Public Policies Incubator started the integration and knowledge sharing from the academia with these populations.
The project contributed to expand and consolidate the Amazon Public Policies Incubator by promoting the strengthening of its activities in the nine states of the Brazilian Amazon. It also promoted democratic governance in the most environmentally vulnerable mesoregions by articulating the public of these regions. This organization and regional articulation of the project is also one of its legacies and is likely to generate new positive results even after the
completion of the Amazon Fund support.
In this area we offer some PDF files with the main publications generated by the project. Click the filename to start the download.
Center for Studies on Culture and the Environment in the Amazon (Rioterra)
Comissão Pró Índio do Acre (CPI-Acre)
Brazilian Biodiversity Fund (Funbio)
The Amazon Museum (Musa)
Tropical Forest Institute (IFT)
Banco do Brasil Foundation (FBB)
