From 2004 to 2008 I lived and worked in the Lower-Amazon region, Pará state (Brazil); from 2009, though I didn’t live any more in this region, I kept following its occurrences.
The Lower-Amazon peopling (400 thousand km2 and about 710 thousand inhabitants) is centred alongside the rivers and, on a smaller extent, the main roads. The forest is still predominant, although it is steadily eroded. The main city is Santarém (300.000 inhabitants).
The region was densely peopled still during the XVI century. Ever after, along the centuries, it was ravished by the colonists’ waves, that changed deeply its social and spatial configuration. The local peoples enacted a strong resilience, preserving many traditions and adapting them to the new conditions.
In the Lower-Amazon region the conflict between opposite models of development is particularly hard; there is a strong tension between the willingness of the people to access goods and services they have not, and the aim to keep alive their own social, economic and cultural practices.
- Here I managed for ISCOS and then MAÌS the so called Uirapurú project.
- The project activities we carried out in the Tamuataí region (municipality of Prainha) are among the more successful; to know more, please visit this page.
- See on my blog some posts related to the Lower-Amazon region (following 2008).
- See on Google Maps the region.