The Socio-Environmental Policy and Law
Program (PPDS) has been operating since early 2003,
when three of ISA’s lines of action were fused: public
policies, law, and biodiversity.
The Program’s objective is to guarantee, through legislative,
administrative, or judicial avenues, the implementation
of rights related to the environment, biodiversity,
indigenous peoples, and local and traditional populations.
It brings together a multidisciplinary team that is
divided between ISA’s offices in Brasilia and São Paulo.
PPDS pursues a unique type of work, seeking to influence
socio-environmental policies as well as advising ISA’s
programs, projects, and other activities in their interfacing
with state and Federal public policies.
PPDS encompasses five lines of action:
1. Monitoring of Socio-Environmental Policies
2. Monitoring of Legislative Proceedings
3. Production and Dissemination of Technical and Legal
Information
4. Technical and Legal Advising
5. Proposals for Legal Action
1. Monitoring of Socio-Environmental Policies
- PPDS monitors, evaluates, and develops actions that
seek to influence public policies related to socio-environmental
causes. The objective is to accompany, participate,
and influence the elaboration and establishment of government
programs and policies related to the issues of indigenous
peoples and territories, forests, biodiversity, water
resources, protected areas, traditional and local populations,
and programs of sustainable regional development.
2. Monitoring of Legislative Proceedings - This
involves accompanying the activities of the National
Congress which are considered relevant to socio-environmental
matters. PPDS analyzes legislative proposals and collaborates
in formulating proposals, facilitating contacts, and
mobilizing public awareness campaigns to support or
reject Congressional bills that will have an impact
on socio-environmental policies and laws.
3. Production and Dissemination of Technical and
Legal Information - In this area, PPDS seeks to
advance knowledge in the areas of law, social sciences,
and environmental science on socio-environmental questions,
especially on topics discussed above. PPDS assists in
the organization and publication (print and digital)
of studies, articles, analyses, technical comments,
specialist opinions, announcements, and news. It also
sponsors and participates in seminars, workshops, and
debates in the public realm, including networks of nongovernmental
organizations and social movements, academic settings,
and Brazilian government forums, as well as those of
international organizations and cooperation agencies.
4. Technical and Legal Advising– PPDS
provides technical, political, and legal support to
work and court actions pursued by civil society organizations,
especially in environmental and indigenist matters,
with the objective of advancing political, administrative,
or legal solutions within or outside the courts. PPDS
offers advice to regional programs and local projects
developed by ISA and its partners, and to social groups
and organizations that are active in other parts of
the country.
5. Proposals for Legal Action – ISA files
lawsuits in its own name and on behalf of indigenous
peoples and traditional communities that, in partnership
with ISA, are defending socio-environmental rights. The
objective goes beyond resolving questions of specific
violations of legal rights, seeking to push the courts
to issue paradigmatic decisions on fundamental issues,
thus creating favorable jurisprudence that can be replicated
in relevant situations and contexts at the national
level in defense of socio-environmental rights.
Team
Coordinator: Adriana Ramos (journalist)
Adjunct Coordinator: Fernando Mathias Baptista (lawyer)
Project Coordinator: André Rodolfo Lima (lawyer)
Public policy advisor: Henry Novion (biologist)
Public policy advisor: Marília Oliveira (political scientist)
Legal advisor: Raul Silva Telles do Valle (lawyer)
Collaborators
Ana Valéria Araújo, Aurélio, Virgílio Veiga Rios, Carlos
Frederico Marés, Juliana Santilli, Márcio Santilli
and Sérgio Leitão
Partnerships and funding
sources
Ford Foundation: financial support
Rainforest Foundation-United States (RFUS): financial
support and institutional partnership
Rainforest Foundation of Norway (RFN): financial support
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