Assessing Sustainable Development in the Amazon: Development and Improvement of an Indicator System for Four Dimensions of Sustainability.

• Grant number: 14/09728-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: August 01, 2016
• End date: July 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Urban and Regional Planning
• Principal Investigator: Sandra Maria Fonseca da Costa
• Grantee: Sandra Maria Fonseca da Costa
• Host Institution: Instituto de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento (IP&D). Universidade do Vale do Paraíba (UNIVAP). São José dos Campos , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Andrea Dalledone Siqueira ; Eduardo Sonnewend Brondizio ; Maria Angelica Toniolo ; Nathan David Vogt

Abstract

Over the past 20 years, the Brazilian Amazon has received significant public and private investments with the objective of promoting sustainable development and halt deforestation. Despite these investments and declining rates of deforestation since 2005, sustainable development projects have not produced their expected results and long-term trends of deforestation are yet proven to be in decline. While some sustainable development projects have not achieved their expected results, there is in fact little rigorous monitoring of the outcomes of these efforts which impairs learning from them and consequently limits the possibility of improvement future efforts. For these reasons, this research project aims to implement and improve a comparative tool for assessing impacts of sustainable development initiatives in the Amazon in coordination with DURAMAZ Project, a collaborative program between Brazilian, French, and American research institutions. With this research project, we intend to contribute to the area of knowledge that integrates social and environmental sciences, implementing and improving a system of indicators for four dimensions of sustainability: living conditions, environment, governance, and future prospects. From a multidimensional conceptual and analytical framework of these dimensions, this approach allows us to understand the impacts, conditions, changes, and trade-offs between the various dimensions of sustainability in the long run. The continuous improvement of these indicators of sustainability can contribute to public policies so that incentives can be effectively implemented, results monitored and lessons learned. (AU)