The SPA (Science Panel for the Amazon) Webinar: Solutions to Scale Green Sustainable Development in the Amazon aims to launch the initiative The Amazon We Want and offer an opportunity to extend its reach. The presentations during the webinar will focus on sustainable development and bioeconomy in the Amazon region.
The Amazon is critical to the planet, providing ecosystem services vital to the climate and water cycles, both locally and globally. However, the forest’s ability to continue existing is fast approaching a tipping point of no return. To highlight one example, areas recently devastated by fire and deforestation will take decades, if not centuries, to recover. If we do not act quickly, the well-being of those who inhabit the planet today, along with future generations, is at risk.
Fortunately, there are sustainable models of development that can both protect the forest and rivers, while also supporting a vibrant economy and higher standards of living for Amazonian people. Currently implemented on a small scale, with the right regulatory framework and institutional support, there is great potential for the region to be a world-leader on the bio economy, producing pharmaceuticals, natural food and fiber products, and cosmetics, with a booming ecotourism sector, and more by harnessing its immense biological and biomimetic assets.
Achieving this vision and ensuring the sustainability of the Amazon requires scientifically-based decisions that consider the traditional knowledge of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. The Science Panel for the Amazon (SPA) is a group of over 160 experts, jointly developing science-based recommendations for sustainable development of the region, based on technology, innovation, and investment. The goal is to support a knowledge economy based on nature, standing forests and flowing rivers, and that considers new opportunities for companies in sustainable agroforestry systems, native species forestry, regenerative agriculture, fishing, ecotourism and bio industrialization of forest products and knowledge. The SPA report will be released by the second quarter of 2021.
On September 3, 2020, the SPA is organizing a webinar to present the SPA’s vision for sustainable pathways for the Amazon we want. During the webinar, panelists will present innovative examples and recommendations for a standing-forest bio economy, informed by scientific knowledge as well as by the social and cultural practices of Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities, and considering the diversity of possible products from terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
Agenda
Should you be interested to attend the webinar, please register here.
The SPA is an initiative connected to the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and has a Strategic Committee composed of personalities from different areas, in addition to scientists, such as Luiz Davidovich, president of ABC, and Enrique Forero, president of the Colombian Academy.
Most of the panelists of the webinar are members of the SPA Scientific Committee, constituted by approximately 180 scientists. The Scientific Committee will prepare a report that will be the first scientific outcome carried out for the entire Amazon basin and its biome. The report will call upon governments, companies, civil society, and all inhabitants of the planet to implement the report’s recommendations and act together for the conservation and development of a sustainable Amazon.
As a partner, the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (an ISC Member Organization) will provide scientific inputs and help engage the Academies of the region in the initiative, inviting them to assist in building local engagement, which is critical to help society – and more specifically local populations – understand that science is essential for the promotion of a new paradigm of sustainable development for the Amazon.