FGV EAESP

How to address the swirl of interests, emotions and actions surrounding the most important tropical forest in the world? The Amazon Forest reveals innumerable dilemmas that our interconnected planet faces today. One of the most pressing matters is associated to wood and its economic applications - an issue that encapsulates the challenge of conserving natural resources for future generations.

Addressing these issues is the mission of the Friends of the Amazon Network, an initiative by the Center for Sustainability Studies and the Center for Public Management and Government Studies at the Getulio Vargas Foundation. The network uses information as a strategic tool to mobilize governments, businesses and society as a whole towards changing attitudes.

We went deep into the Amazon in search of the stories behind the figures that describe the forest, all the while maintaining the objective and investigative spirit of true journalism. The result if a useful synthesis of the best available statistics and the scientific studies to support the efforts of those who - within governments or in civil society - are trying to conserve the forest.

With its detailed graphics and documentary style, this book reveals how pervasive fraud has traditionally controlled timber production, transport and trade. We also demonstrate the ingenious ways in which good practices are spreading and building a new economic model that reconciles development and conservation.