Conference: Environmental Policy, Social Movements, and Science for the Brazilian Amazon

Free and open to the public. Space is limited, online registration is required: http://amazonia.uchicago.edu/

Environmental Policy, Social Movements, and Science for the Brazilian Amazon
November 5-6, 2009
The University of Chicago

Swift Hall
1025 East 58th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
(map: http://maps.uchicago.edu/mainquad/swift.html)

The Center for Latin American Studies and The Program on Global Environment at The University of Chicago are pleased to present an interdisciplinary conference on “Environmental Policy, Social Movements, and Science for the Brazilian Amazon”, November 5-6, 2009. The conference will assess the last twenty years of regional structural projects, social movements, and science and technology in the Amazon, as well as what roles and opportunities are created for the region by science, technology, traditional knowledge, and markets for environmental services, within the standards of forest preservation. The conference will be in Portuguese and English; simultaneous translation will be provided for attendees, free of charge.


This conference is free and open to the public. Persons with disabilities who need an accommodation in order to participate in this event should contact the Center for Latin American Studies for assistance: (773) 702-8420 or clas@uchicago.edu. Information on Assistive Listening Device

[Conference description and agenda follows. Paper abstracts, panelist biographies, and up-to-date conference details are available at the conference website: http://amazonia.uchicago.edu/]

This conference will evaluate two decades of social, environmental, and developmental processes in the Amazon, with special emphasis on issues of science and technology. Were the hopes kindled by the Bruntland report in 1987, by the social-environmental activism of Chico Mendes until 1988, and by the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 translated into effective policies? What new issues have emerged since then as strategically crucial for solving the intertwined problems of poverty, forest conservation, and development? How are the stakeholders acting today on these issues?

Scientists, politicians, anthropologists, economists, and leaders of non-governmental organizations will analyze both the positive changes and the shortcomings in policy in a discussion about the development of conservation strategies that will affect the future of the Amazon region. We will confront the growing emphasis on market-oriented solutions to conservation and development problems, and explore the challenges of articulating traditional knowledge with modern science in developing alternative strategies for education, health, and economic development. With those issues in mind, the conference is organized around three broad topics:

Panel 1 - Models of Development - An Assessment of the Last 20 Years of Public Policies for the Amazon Region. Paradoxically, the policies we see today in the Amazon are strikingly similar to those that were in place during the military dictatorship. Very little has changed in those policies since then, while the world, in contrast, has changed vastly.

Panel 2 – Social Movements and Chico Mendes’ Legacy for the Sustainable Development of the Amazon. As a consequence of a popular government in Brazil, local social movements have significantly reduced their activities or changed their historical objectives. Until recently, territorial security was the main objective of social movements in Amazonia. What happens now that this objective is achieved? What are the social movements’ agendas now?

Panel 3 – Science and Technology as a Basis for a New Development Model for the Amazon. What opportunities do science and technology offer as a basis for a new development model that has the forest and the environmental services it offers as its main focus? Topics such as climate change, biodiversity valuation, and carbon sequestration or storage will be discussed, always with attention to the role that can be imparted by traditional knowledge.

Round Table – Perspectives of Social Movement Leaders. This roundtable, with representatives of indigenous and other social movements, will close the conference. Participants will articulate the points of view of the social groups they represent, regarding the historical and contemporary models of development in the Brazilian Amazon, as well as the perspectives and contradictions for sustainability in the region, today and in the future.

For more information, please visit: http://amazonia.uchicago.edu/