Attentive to issues that affect Brazil’s presence in global debates, Fundação Getulio Vargas launched a book called Amazônia XXI on November 14, at the Travessa Bookstore in Lisbon, Portugal. The publication contains a variety of articles that seek to portray the Amazon region from a holistic view, encompassing environmental, cultural, artistic, educational and sustainability issues, highlighting the biome’s key role and reiterating FGV’s mission to stimulate Brazil’s socioeconomic development.
FGV launched a bilingual edition of the book following the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26, which took place in Glasgow from October 31 to November 12, at which world leaders discussed advances in the fight against global warming since the Paris Agreement, a milestone in climate negotiations, signed by nearly 200 countries in 2015.
The Amazon is a vast, natural tropical area, made up of extremely complex and dynamic environments. Its river basin features a variety of landscapes and ecosystems, including not just tropical rainforest, flooded forests and floodplains, but also savanna and an intricate network of rivers, lakes and streams. From a geopolitical point of view, the international Amazon region covers parts of eight countries, besides Brazil. In Brazil, Amazon covers 10 states and the region’s municipalities accounted for 8.6% of the country’s GDP in 2016.
The biome’s importance for the planet is incalculable. The region has 350 billion trees, around 45 for every inhabitant of the world, storing at least 80 billion metric tons of carbon. It is a source of food, timber, medicines and minerals. It inspires national pride, stimulating the arts and science in Brazil.
Amazônia XXI contains 15 articles by different specialists, organized by art critic Paulo Herkenhoff and architect Silvia Finguerut, the coordinators of FGV Knowledge. These articles promote reflection on the biome’s challenges and threats, institutional issues, bioeconomy proposals, the role of civil society in supporting the preservation and monitoring of the Amazon, the needs of indigenous peoples and the wealth of local culture and art.
The book includes a foreword by one of the members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, scientist Carlos Nobre. He sets out his thesis, “Amazon 4.0,” which proposes economic development in the biome, based on the huge potential of the Amazon’s natural assets. The climatologist also gives a warning about the forest’s degradation and the impacts of human action.
The publication also features around 180 images, including photographs and reproductions of documents and works of art, brought together through a meticulous curation process, as well as research that presents the thriving contemporary artistic scene in the Amazon.
During the week of Amazônia XXI’s launch in Lisbon, there will also be three important events marking Brazil’s presence in Portugal: the 25th Anniversary International Seminar of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) on November 11th; the Seminar of the Federal Senate, which will debate topics such as sustainability and the creative economy in the Amazon, on November 12; and the 9th Legal Forum of Lisbon, which every year debates key issues in contemporary constitutional law, based on dialogue between the Portuguese and Brazilian legal systems.
This year, the forum was held in person and also broadcasted online, on November 15, 16 and 17, at the University of Lisbon Law School, as a result of a partnership between the Institute of Legal and Political Sciences and the Public Law Research Center at the University of Lisbon Law School, the Brazilian Institute of Education, Development and Research (IDP) and Fundação Getulio Vargas, through FGV Knowledge’s Center for Judicial Innovation, Administration and Research (FGV CIAPJ).
The event will also feature the launch of other publications that foster an important space for academic debate based on the dissemination of works presented and developed by research groups in Brazil and Portugal.
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