SDGAcademyX: AMZN001 The Living Amazon: Science, Cultures and Sustainability in Practice

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2. Hello, my name is Lilian Painter. I'm the
3. Country Director for the Wildlife
4. Conservation Society Program in Bolivia
5. and a Lead Author of the Science Panel
6. for the Amazon. This chapter focuses on
7. principles and values for a Living
8. Amazon. Having a clear and shared vision
9. is necessary to change course, but this
10. is a complex task for the Amazon, in
11. which an intricate and diverse network
12. of stakeholders from different countries
13. and sectors and world views have
14. interests, which are often opposing, over
15. the land and its resources. An
16. environmentally and socially sustainable,
17. inclusive, and just Amazon where people
18. and nature thrive requires that we
19. abandon the unsustainable, short-term,
20. extractive-based economy vision, a
21. model that has dominated the region
22. until now. The emerging Living Amazon
23. Vision aims to transform the life-blind
24. economic system to one that is life-
25. centric and based on values and
26. principles of mutual benefit, in which
27. both people and the Amazon rainforest,
28. including its monumental rivers, can
29. flourish. We will learn the key shared
30. principles and values that define
31. sustainable development in the Amazonian
32. context, including aspects such as
33. standing forests, flowing rivers in the
34. Amazon. The Living Amazon Vision
35. represents a moonshot goal, an ambitious
36. vision to achieve what may seem
37. inconceivable today: averting a potential
38. tipping point of a collapse of the
39. Amazon biome's hydroclimatic system will
40. require nothing less. Historical visions
41. of the Amazon as an infinite storehouse
42. of resources to be exploited in pursuit
43. of the goals of progress and economic
44. growth must be replaced with an Earth
45. system science view, whereby the Amazon
46. is reconsidered as a key ecological
47. entity of the biosphere's life support
48. system. The Amazon is a vital entity for
49. the planet that provides fundamental
50. ecosystem services to the region and
51. globe. Despite the local, regional, and
52. global importance of the Amazon, its
53. forests have been lost and degraded at
54. accelerated rates compared with other
55. tropical forests, and many of its rivers
56. have been polluted, dammed, or fragmented
57. over the past four decades. The
58. development models that have been
59. dominant across Amazonian countries are
60. based on free market forces, commodity
61. production or extraction——often for
62. export——accompanied by social inequality,
63. poverty, and criminality. Sustaining a
64. Living Amazon Vision requires realigning
65. strategies and relationships between
66. stakeholders interacting with the Amazon.
67. Global cooperation, robust diplomacy, and
68. mutual responsibility are essential
69. for achieving sustainability in the
70. Amazon. Sustainable development pathways
71. for a Living Amazon must be shaped and
72. implemented by Amazonian countries and
73. supported by other nations. Key
74. initiative examples include supporting
75. Indigenous territorial management,
76. sustainable-use protected areas,
77. integrated conservation and development
78. projects, and payments for ecosystem
79. services schemes. REDD+, reducing
80. emissions from deforestation and forest
81. degradation in developing countries,
82. provides financial incentives to forest-
83. rich countries for maintaining standing
84. forests. Barriers to these initiatives
85. include lack of incentives for
86. conservation, land tenure insecurity, and
87. leakage of destructive activities. While
88. most national REDD+ initiatives have
89. so far failed to stop deforestation, REDD+
90. finance has improved understanding
91. of deforestation drivers, forest
92. monitoring, and policy
93. coordination. Various conservation and
94. development initiatives must be
95. integrated to engage in a Living Amazon
96. agenda. The Living Amazon Vision results
97. from consultations with scientists and
98. authors of the Science Panel for the
99. Amazon and their multiple interactions
100. with stakeholders in the region, as well
101. as from a dialogue between Indigenous
102. knowledge and
103. science. Seven principles associated to
104. six values were highlighted to support
105. the Living Amazon Vision. Principles
106. represent a proposition: an objective
107. reality to be followed to guide people's
108. behaviors towards a new vision for the
109. Amazon. Meanwhile, values represent
110. intrinsic qualities that influence
111. people's
112. behavior. This life-centric vision
113. supports a sustainable Amazon, in which
114. the use of its resources and
115. biodiversity in the present will not
116. compromise the existence of future
117. generations of human and non-human beings.
118. The strategies to reach a Living Amazon
119. Vision of the future based on a
120. development model that is inclusive, just,
121. and socially, environmentally, and
122. economically healthy include: firstly, the
123. conservation, sustainable management,
124. restoration and remediation of
125. ecosystems. Secondly, the incentive for
126. developing an inclusive and just
127. bioeconomy. And, lastly, the strengthening
128. of governance and people's empowerment
129. and alignment policies at multiple
130. scales,
131. including transboundary coordination and
132. finance. The first principle states that
133. the Amazon is the world's largest
134. tropical rainforest and largest river by
135. volume, with a unique geodiversity,
136. exceptional biodiversity, and high level
137. of endemism, which must be valued,
138. respected, and protected. The second
139. principle states that the Amazon
140. provides key, cross-scale regulatory
141. ecosystem functions, especially for
142. climate, hydrology, and biodiversity that
143. form the basis of water and food
144. security. The third, that the use of the
145. Amazon's natural resources must support
146. ecological processes, functions, and
147. livelihoods in the face of a climate
148. crisis and a potential tipping point.
149. Fourth, urban and rural areas of the
150. Amazon must function as integrated
151. productive systems that promote and
152. support a wide range of socioeconomic
153. and ecological benefits.
154. The fifth, Amazonian governance must
155. include participatory processes of
156. engagement among diverse stakeholders
157. and across scales for the well-being of
158. the whole. Decision-making processes must
159. involve local people and communities and
160. use the best scientific knowledge, as
161. well as value Indigenous and local
162. knowledge and cultural practices,
163. ensuring public participation and
164. integration of local and international
165. actors. (6) The Amazon houses diverse
166. experiential knowledge systems and
167. cultures, resulting from the
168. interconnection between people and
169. nature, which must be valued, recognized,
170. and protected. This knowledge must be
171. protected from private expropriation and
172. biopiracy, while highlighting the
173. potential for exchange among Indigenous
174. People and Local Communities and
175. scientific knowledge systems and
176. policymaking to inform sustainable
177. pathways. (7) Recognition of the rights of
178. Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities
179. and ensuring their access to justice is
180. paramount to promoting well-being for
181. all——recognizing Indigenous People and
182. Local Communities' rights to healthier
183. landscapes, their well-being, and the
184. well-being of the region and planet.
185. Based on the principles and values
186. described before, we propose a strategy
187. to support a Living Amazon based upon
188. three pillars. These three pillars are
189. inspired by the three dimensions of
190. sustainable development and their
191. desired outcomes: A) ecological integrity
192. of the terrestrial and aquatic
193. ecosystems; B) an economic dimension
194. represented by socioeconomic well-being
195. and equity; and C) social aspects
196. represented by social justice and rights.
197. All of these must be supported by
198. financial
199. mechanisms. In conclusion, the transition
200. to a Living Amazon Vision is not trivial.
201. It requires the establishment of a set
202. of feasible solutions supported by
203. political will, civil society, and
204. private engagement. The COVID-19 pandemic
205. and our global ecological crises are
206. giving rise to the frameworks of One
207. Health, planetary health, well-being, and
208. living economies——all in the new climate
209. regimes that protect the foundations of
210. life on Earth, in contrast to dominant
211. accumulation ideologies and market
212. economics, in which life is valued only
213. to the extent it produces financial
214. returns that are currently primarily
215. derived from the depletion of the
216. Earth's biological
217. productivity. The responsibility for
218. materializing the Living Amazon goes
219. beyond the Pan-Amazonian countries. It is
220. a call to engage all governments and
221. human beings in sustaining life in all
222. forms. The Living Amazon Vision for the
223. region represents an opportunity to lead
224. the world by example, recognizing the
225. intrinsic value of nature, culture, and
226. the peoples to development, and breaking
227. the dichotomy between conservation and
228. aspirations for human well-being. All of
229. these recommendations embedded in the
230. Living Amazon Vision are in alignment
231. with the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs that
232. face distinct levels of implementation
233. in the
234. Amazon.
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