International Model Forest Network » Amazonas Tapajós Model Forest

Floresta Modelo Amazonas Tapajós em português (PDF)

In a nutshell

The Amazonas Tapajós Model Forest (FLOMAT, by its Portuguese name Floresta Modelo Amazonas Tapajós) seeks to create a space where different stakeholders follow environmental sustainability principles in the activities they carry out in the region, improving their quality of life and stimulating the economy with FLOMAT products and services. The area, comprising 4,081,302 ha, is located in the State of Pará, oriental region of the Amazonas river in confluence with the Tapajós river, known as “Lower Amazonas”. 78% percent of the landscape is still covered by natural forests.

The main difficulty faced by FLOMAT consists in delivering the Model Forest concept to the communities living in it, because the area presents the typical Amazonian challenge of great distances between inhabited areas, communication issues relating to the adoption of new technologies, and lack of resources, among others.

Landscape

The FLOMAT territory is comprised of public lands, such as conservation units, indigenous territories and agrarian reform settlements and, to a lesser degree, of private properties for agriculture and livestock.

Of the nearly 50 million hectares of the Tapajós river basin, 41% are protected in conservation units or indigenous lands, and 22% are under alternative soil use schemes. Beneath the territory irrigated by the three large Amazonas, Tapajós and Arapiuns rivers lays the 312,574 km²Aquifer System Alter do Chão. With its 86 million km³ of water, it is considered the largest groundwater reserve in the world.

The region’s economy is based on mining, agriculture and livestock, and forestry. There is also tourist activity close to the cities of Santarém and Belterra, known for their beaches, tropical forests, blackwater-flooded Amazonian forests (known as igapós in Portugese), Amazonian savannah, and their cultural and religious practices.

The Model Forest territory has a population estimated at 321,235 inhabitants, including the Santarém, Belterra and Aveiro municipalities. Santarém is still the most important city of western Pará, thanks to its better social and economic infrastructure, a well-developed service sector and its privileged strategic location.

Partnership

FLOMAT is an autonomous organization formed by several institutions. It has a General Assembly, an Executive Secretary and four Technical Chambers. Its founding members are the following:

National Council of Extractive Industries;
Elo Sustainable Development Institute;
Federation of Traditional Organizations and Communities of the Tapajós National Forest;
Federation of Neighbors and Communities of the Agroextrativist Settlement of the Gleba Lago Grande;
Western Pará Federal University;
Santarém Environment Municipal Secretary;
Brazilian Forest Service;
Flano do Tapajós Mixed Cooperative;
Health and Happiness Project (Projeto Saúde e Alegria);
Amazonian Environmental Research Institute;
Chico Mendes Biodiversity Conservation Institute;
Tapajós Arapiuns Organization of Extractive Reserve Associations;
National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform;
Aveiro Environment Municipal Secretary;
Belterra Environment and Tourism Municipal Secretary;
Syndicate of Rural Workers;
Western Pará Agroextractive Workers Cooperative;
Eixo Forte Agroextractive Project Federation of Community Associations;
Sebastião Tapajós Institute.

The Board of Directors is formed by a President, a General Secretary, the Technical Chamber Secretaries, a treasurer, substitute Directors and a fiscal advisor. It is elected by the General Assembly, formed by representatives from the organizations chosen among FLOMAT founding members and by four Technical Chamber representatives.

The Technical Chambers are responsible for proposing actions for their approval by the Assembly. These actions will shape the working plan that will be carried out by partner institutions, steered by the President.

Sustainability

Strategic goals:

To promote the Model Forest and its guiding principles throughout the territory in meetings with partner institutions, using the opportunities provided by preparations for the 2019 National Forest Inventory;
Have the partner institutions to include FLOMAT in their actions;
To consolidate management tools and strategies, in particular communication among partners and between partners and their audience;
To strengthen FLOMAT human capital through training activities and have FLOMAT partners adopt and respect the six Model Forest principles.

Key actions in place to reach these goals:

Testing the FLOMAT blog;
Training FLOMAT members to follow its core principles;
Mapping, along with partner institutions, environmental restoration experiences with clear income-deriving possibilities for producers, contemplating both success stories and failures, as well as opportunities and challenges.

Key impacts: