Towards an observatory of sustainability in the Amazon
Informations
- Funding country
France- Acronym
- DURAMAZ2
- URL
- -
- Start date
- 10/1/2011
- End date
- -
- Budget
- 271,000 EUR
Fundings
| Name | Role | Start | End | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blanc - SHS 1 - Sociétés, espaces, organisations et marchés (Blanc SHS 1) - 2011 | Grant | 10/1/2011 | - | 271,000 EUR |
Abstract
The Amazon is a capital region for the world’s ecological and climate balances. It is also under pressure by deforestation and by local expectations of improvements in life conditions, much often reflected by the progression of unsustainable lifestyles. At the same time, in the last 20 years, the Amazon has been turned into a laboratory for sustainable development. International and national attention was attracted by the threats on the rainforest and a great number of initiatives were launched in order to promote sustainability, also prompting a reinterpretation of traditional cultures, whose integration with their environment is now seen as exemplar. Based on a detailed comparative study of 13 sites where sustainable development projects have been implanted, the DURAMAZ1 (2006-2010) project has developed an innovative indicator system allowing a comparison between the sites even if the belong to very different cultural, economic or social contexts. Capitalizing on this basis, the DURAMAZ2 proposal will build a theoretical model of the influence of different indicators of sustainability and their interactions at site-specific level and across sites. It will also identify common elements that could explain successes or failures and could constitute the basis of a theory of sustainability in the context of tropical forest areas. But new thematic, geographical or methodological questions will also be addressed, making the DURAMAZ2 project a very innovative proposal. From a thematic point of view, the DURAMAZ2 project will analyse the impact of new policy instruments for promoting sustainability, such as REDD or PES. It will also focus on corporate social and ecological responsibility, adding new sites of study that are under the influence of multinational firms. The project will aim at a better integration of ecological and climate dimensions underlying sustainability through the development of new modules around the uses of biodiversity and around the perceptions of climate change inside the communities. The question of institutional arrangements around the use of natural resources, studied by Nobel Prize E. Ostrom, will also be tackled by adapting Ostrom’s IAD framework to the DURAMAZ indicator system and fieldwork protocols. From a geographical point of view, the DURAMAZ2 project will expand the coverage of DURAMAZ1 by adopting a pan-amazonian approach including sites in the French Guiana and in Equador. Also, control sites where there were no specific policy will be added. At the same time, the DURAMAZ2 project will promote a new observation campaign in the sites that were included in the first phase. This will allow us to compare this “t1” observation to the “t0” (i.e. around 2007) observation, thus offering an unique opportunity for comparative and longitudinal analysis supported by a unique high precision database system already held by the project. From a methodological point of view, the DURAMAZ2 project will innovate by adapting the SIEL spatial model to the Amazon region so as to propose prospective scenarios. It will also take advantage of new tools such as the very high resolution remote sensing sensors. The DURAMAZ2 project is split in 6 main tasks. Four of them form a sequence during which the observation protocol will be adjusted, fieldwork will be realized at 20 sites by multidisciplinary teams and results will be analyzed and published. Two other will last the whole project’s duration. The first is devoted to setting up and running the SIEL model and the other to the project management and to convert it into a proposal of a permanent observatory of sustainability, which will be offered to local and international institutions engaged in the Amazon region. The consortium gathered around the DURAMAZ2 project is composed of internationally recognized research centres of France, Brazil and the USA, leaded by the CREDA, a French centre specialized in latin American and Amazonian issues.