Vol. 6 No. 12 (2020): Essays of Geography

COVER

Amanã Sustainable Development Reserve, Amazonas, Brazil, February 18, 2017

The Amanã Sustainable Development Reserve is the second conservation unit of its kind created in Brazil, in 1998, in the Central Amazon, and is managed by the State Government of Amazonas. It has management structures and shared governance among the state, local communities, and partner institutions. It is located in the middle course of the Solimões River and covers part of the hydrographic basins of the Solimões, Japurá, and Unini rivers. This protected area spans a territorial area of 2.35 million hectares, encompassing floodplain, paleofloodplain, and upland environments. RDS Amanã is one of the protected areas that make up the Lower Rio Negro Mosaic and is part of the Central Amazon Ecological Corridor and the Central Amazon Biosphere Reserve. It is recognized as a Natural World Heritage Site by UNESCO (Central Amazon Protected Areas Complex) and as a Site of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (Rio Negro). This sustainable use conservation unit is home to over five thousand residents and users whose main activities for self-sustenance and commercialization include fishing, family farming, and extractivism. RDS Amanã is territorially organized into sectors that aggregate communities and establish forms and strategies for the use and management of natural resources. The cover photograph of this edition was taken in the Castanha sector, one of the 11 sectors that this unit has. It portrays the typical floating houses of the region, which are strategic for inhabiting these environments that are seasonally affected by river flooding. The photograph was taken during a trip to conduct a workshop with local communities aimed at providing social organization advice for natural resource management and mediating conflicts over the use and ownership of lakes designated for fishing activities. During this opportunity, among the different activities and tools used to support the workshop, participatory mapping was used for the territory use diagnosis with the user communities.

Caetano Franco Bachelor of Geography from the Federal University of Alfenas/MG, Brazil; Advanced Studies in Protected Areas Management from Colorado State University/CO, USA; and Master's in Protected Areas Management in the Amazon from the National Institute of Amazonian Research/AM, Brazil. Contact: caetanolbfranco@gmail.com