FORTIS Consortium

Challenging the Advance of the Deforestation Frontier:
Strengthening Local Institutions Towards Social Justice and Sustainable Livelihoods in the Brazilian Amazon

Partners

• Institute for International Education of Brazil (IEB) - (Lead Partner)
• Instituto do Homem e Meio Ambiente da Amazônia (IMAZON)
• Associação de Defesa Etno-Ambiental Kanindé
• Conservation Strategy Fund (CSF)
• Amazon Conservation Team (ACT)

The objective of the FORTIS initiative is to strengthen local populations' capacity to deal with the socio-environmental problems associated with the advance of the deforestation frontier. The program is structured in three interrelated components (during the 2008 fiscal year the project focused on their two first components):

(1) Strengthening local institutions towards social justice and sustainable livelihoods in a frontier region of Brazil;

(2) Environmental monitoring of landscapes and land use trends in a focal landscape; and

(3) Personnel exchanges, information sharing and systematization of experiences between consortium members, partner organizations and collaborator institutions.

Activities aim to strengthen local institutions focused on training activities, and information syntheses meetings and workshops, conducted with local organizations in the municipalities of Humaitá, Lábrea, Boca do Acre, Manicoré Novo Aripuanã and Apuí.