Managing Land

One of the variables which influences progress on the Integrated Environmental Management Project (PGAI), under the auspices of the Pilot Program, is the affinity that local governments have shown with the premises of sustainable development that have been propagated by the program. The states of Acre and Amapá, which in recent years chose to elect governors with alternative development proposals based upon popular participation and appreciation of the value of the forest heritage, have achieved interesting results in terms of environmental management in Amazônia.

Amapá pioneered adoption of sustainable development as the guiding principle behind its public policies when it created, in 1995, the Amapá Sustainable Development Program. One of the basic premises of this initiative was to treat the forest as a valuable resource and to enable people living there to add value to their productive activities. Since then, the state has invested a great deal of effort in regulating the use of natural resources, resolving hitherto intractable problems concerning exploitation of natural resources and ensuring decent living conditions for local people.

Management planning concerning the territory received funding from the Pilot Program within the PGAI of the state. Investments focused on consolidation of the structure of the state environmental body and on the training of its technical staff in an effort to improve surveillance instruments, as well as those concerned with environmental control in areas considered a high priority. PGAI, furthermore, played an important role in drawing up the State Law on Forestry, Biodiversity and Water Resources and the ecological zoning of the state - a key planning instrument enabling cross-referencing of information regarding the ecology of the state with other data involving economic potential, the dynamics of land occupation and the use of natural resources.

Guidelines for environmental policy

Initially, the zoning of Amapá covered an area of 2.5 million hectares in the south of the state. This was the region presenting serious environmental and social problems calling for urgent action on the part of the public authorities. The city of Laranjal do Jari is in this area. This came into being at the time of the setting up of the Jari Project created by the American millionaire Daniel Ludwig in the 1970's with the aim of producing cellulose. On account of having the lowest human development indices of the whole of Brazilian Amazônia, the region of Laranjal do Jari attracted special attention from the PGAI. This led to the drawing up and execution of a management plan for the municipal area, carried out in partnership with the state government, the municipal authority and civil society entities.

The PGAI furthermore gave support to the setting up of the State Environmental Council and to strengthening the work of the Amazon Working Group (GTA) in the state of Amapá, with the aim of providing the conditions for more substantial participation by civil society organizations in defining guidelines for environmental policy in the state.