| The main objective of this program
is to produce and publicize information that can influence
decisions about public policies and government actions
concerning the defense of collective rights and the
protection and conservation of Brazil’s environmental
heritage. The program bases its operations on a georeferenced
databank on Protected Areas (Indigenous Territories
and Federal and state Conservation Units) as well as
other public lands (military areas and mining reserves),
which are compared with information on various topics
at the national level.
The main feature of this program is its capacity to
give rapid, detailed analyses by crossing spatial data
on Protected Areas and various topics. ISA’s geoprocessing
system takes information from its databank and projects
it in spatialized form on a map of Brazil. The data
is updated daily by members of the team. These dynamics
have created and consolidated a system of cumulative
data for the last twenty years, facilitating time-lapse
studies on situations in the study areas.
History
The program was initiated in 1983 with the monitoring
of Indigenous Territories in Brazil, and expanded in
1992 to cover Conservation Units and other public areas
for specific uses. It allows information to be gathered
on the official recognition and environmental situation
of these lands, which is crossed with data on deforestation
and the human impact on vegetation.
By monitoring government projects and private economic
enterprises, such as hydroelectric dams, highways, waterways,
railroads, mining, and logging, ISA can generate analyses
that assist projects such as those promoting the sustainability
of indigenous societies or of the environment in the
face of economic development policies. These analyses
make it possible to find out, for example, the percentage
of the Brazilian biomes that are protected through different
legal measures, which can assist discussions about environmental
conservation, decisions about political actions, and
evaluations on future impacts of legislation proposals
on protected areas.
By constantly updating its data, this project produces
a stream of articles, maps, reports, news, and information
for organizations of traditional populations, indigenous
support groups, environmental movements, the administrative,
legislative, and judicial branches of government, multilateral
agencies, and public media.
Team
Coordinator: Fany Pantaleoni Ricardo (anthropologist)
Researcher: Cristina Velasquez (forestry engineer)
Intern: Tigê Castro Sevá (social sciences student)
Partnerships and funding sources
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Interecclesiastic Organization for Development
Cooperation (ICCO), Netherlands: institutional support
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Norwegian Church Aid (NCA): institutional support
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Norwegian Agency for International Cooperation,
Norwegian Program for Indigenous Peoples (NORAD-PNPI):
financial support
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European Union: financial support
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