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Ecological Principles for Decision Making in the Amazon

Summary

This course was specifically designed for representatives of government institutions (federal, state, and municipal), non-governmental (civil society organizations such as unions, cooperatives, and NGOs), the private sector and legislators who hold positions of leadership. It offers high quality scientific and technical information intended to help participants understand ecological principles and apply them in formulating public policy across all sectors, addressing the sustainable use and conservation of the Amazon’s forest resources. Participants leave with more tools to face a challenge common to all communities across the Amazon: that of using local resources sustainably.

Content

Day 1

  • Welcome and opening session
  • Introduction to ecological principles and concepts
  • environmental heterogeneity in the Amazon, environmental peculiarities in the southern region of the State of Amazon, history and dynamics of deforestation in the region.
  • New Sources of Energy? New cultigens for Biodiesel and reforestation
  • Visit to cultivated fields: Mamona, Mangaba, reforestation and crafts
  • DISCUSSION: Conservation policy as a model for development

Day 2

  • Human Actions and the challenges of development
  • Field Trip to Tenharim: The indigenous issue, relation to the federal government and the challenges of income generation (regional tourism and the eco-tourism industry)
  • Field Trip to local saw mills: Actions of the new face of wood exploration: the case of Kilometer 180, management and forest certification
  • DISCUSSION: The effects of climate change on the Amazon region

Day 3

  • Conservation of Biodiversity  
  • Field trip to the Amazon: conservation policy and a walk through natural history
  • Agriculture Frontier: advancing or retreating, the politics of grain

Day 4

  • Management of Conservation Units
  • Management of Conservation Units and natural history and a field trip to an extraction community in Flona
  • Evaluation and Closing session