The publication of this site in English comes at a moment when the future of the Brazilian Amazon region is still uncertain. There are simultaneously encouraging and worrying signs.

Biodiversity loss continues; the pressures from unsustainable forms of biodiversity use continue to be high and in some areas are greater than ever; conflicts persist over rights to land and to the biological resources they contain; and the resources available for the scientific research and the implementation of conservation measures are still inadequate.

On the other hand, new legal and policy instruments are being developed; inter-sectoral approaches to harmonizing economic development and environmental protection in the region are emerging at federal and state levels; and opinion polls show that Amazonia and biodiversity loss are matters that continue to concern the Brazilian public.

Through this site ISA hopes to provide those outside Brazil with a valuable and authoritative guide to the richness and complexities both of the biological diversity of the Brazilian Amazon region and of the policy debates on its conservation, sustainable use and the equitable sharing of the benefits arising from utilization of the genetic resources it contains.

The future of the Amazon is full of complexities: complex social, political and economic dynamics; complex technical issues to be resolved in the field of remote sensing in order to get an accurate picture of deforestation as it happens; complex resource and logistical issues to be resolved in order that legislation and policies can be implemented on the ground; complex scientific issues surrounding the feedbacks between deforestation and climate change; the complex challenges facing indigenous and traditional communities as they try to negotiate their futures on a rapidly expanding agricultural and resource frontier in a wired and globalized world.

The site intends to throw a spotlight on these complexities – providing an authoritative picture of what is going on and access to key scientific and social science analysis.

However because, although threatened and undergoing change, Amazonia is an enormous, fascinating and varied place, megadiverse on almost any criterion – biologically, socially, and at the level of landscapes, vegetations, communities, fauna, cultural expressions – the site will reflect this diversity. We will aim to provide you with information in English on the peoples, literature, music and history of the region, as well as on the contemporary challenges of combating deforestation and climate change and reconciling growth and social inclusion with environmental conservation.

The site is work in progress. It will be some time until it is as comprehensive, useful and attractive as we want it to be. Please keep visiting.