Equator Prize 2004

www.mamiraua.org.br

Full Nomination

Description: Sociedade Civil Mamirauá has pioneered the creation of Sustainable Development Reserves (SDRs) in Brazil. The group manages two SDRs located within the Central Amazon Conservation Complex - a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Since 1992, they have worked with communities, conservation scientists, and state governments to ensure a sustainable future for both local livelihoods and the biodiversity of the Amazon rainforest upon which local communities depend.

Key Activities and Innovations: The organization co-manages an area of over 1,124,000 hectares - the Mamirauá Reserve and the Amana Reserve. Sociedade Civil Mamirauá developed an Economic Alternatives Program in 1998 aimed at re-orienting traditional resource extraction toward sustainable activities, including: fisheries management (six community associations and 200 households); forest management (20 forest management plans every year); ecotourism (seven communities); agriculture; and handicraft production.

Key Impacts

Biodiversity

• Political mobilization, empowerment of local groups, and community-based participation towards the conservation of biodiversity

• Improved access by the local population to natural resources

• Populations of key species have stabilized and in many cases increased

• The black cayman population has increased by 100 percent, pirarucu fish by over 300 percent

Social-economic

• Increase in average local household incomes from 50 percent to 99 percent per annum in some areas

• 80 teachers have received training and 1,800 children received an education as a result of environmental training programs

• A floating school for technical courses has been constructed

Replication

• Sociedade Civil Mamirauá has expanded its initiatives in other parts of Brazil and abroad

• The organization has implemented activities in the southern Pantanal in Mato Grosso (Brazil), Bolivia, Peru, Guyana and Tanzania.

Partners

• MCT - Brazilian Federal Ministry of Science and Technology
• WCS - Wildlife Conservation Society
• IPAAM - Institute for Environmental Protection of the Amazonas State MMA/PPG7 - Brazilian Federal Ministry of the Environment

Governo fortalece a gestão participativa das Unidades de Conservação de Uso Sustentável

Contacts
Isabel Sousa, Director
Ana Rita Alves
Av. Brasil, N.197, Juruá, Tefé, Amazonas
Brasil
(55) 97 3343 4672
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