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"INVOLVING CIVIL SOCIETY: THE DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS SUBPROGRAM OF THE PILOT PROGRAM TO CONSERVE THE BRAZILIAN RAINFOREST".
I have choosed this lesson as the most important lesson from the case study.
To conserve the brazilian rainforest "The Pilot Program (PPG7)" was started. The Pilot Program, in its current form, is the result of an agreement between Brazil and the member countries of the Group of Seven (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom and United States), as well as the European Union and Holland, with the World Bank as multilateral cooperation agency. The idea is to act at the governmental level, while supporting initiatives originating in civil society organizations. The Pilot Program has recognized the need to demonstrate the feasibility of bringing economic and social objectives into harmony with environmental goals in the use of the tropical forests.
The Role of Civil Society
The history of recent regional projects with little participation on the part of the target population has shown few results and limited accomplishment of objectives. This fact, in and of itself, would justify the inclusion of a program based on projects arising from the people themselves. There has been a growing demand on the part of various segments of civil society, local politicians, NGOs and other organized groups for alternatives aimed at reducing damage to the environment and proposing innovative models of sustained socioeconomic development, on a local or regional basis.
The participation of the different social groups not only enriches the debate among different models of development for the region (based on a critical evaluation of personal experience), but also permits the engendering and testing of new alternative proposals for development and conservation of the environment.
The varied population groups residing in the Amazon hold the key to many possible solutions, because of their own experience and acc**ulated knowledge.
The Demonstration Projects of the PPG7
The doc**ent presented to the G-7 by the Brazilian Government at the meeting in Brussels in March, 1991 included the first reference to demonstration projects as a sub-component of the Pilot Program. A significant number of conservation and sustainable development projects had been proposed by grassroots organizations, supporting and advisory NGOs and/or local governments.
In considering the Demonstration Projects as an integral part of the Pilot Program, and even deciding to include them among the first projects to be evaluated and negotiated, the donors and the World Bank began to envision the participation of civil society in the Pilot Program.
Thus it was that the Demonstration Projects Subprogram (PD/A) was born, the core idea of which is to reinforce the capability of civil society, in association with the government, to develop feasible solutions for the conservation and development of the Amazon region and the regions within the domain of the Atlantic Forest, testing, applying, implementing and disseminating alternative economically, socially and ecologically sustainable methods of management and conservation of natural resources.
Association Between the Government and Civil Society
The pioneering nature of this principle of government – civil society association has proved to be a challenge to project management. No action of government, no matter how big or how good, can by itself meet the challenge of simultaneously conserving and developing a region. Such a challenge can only be faced by a joint effort involving government and society. Without the growing involvement of the diverse segments of society and their own commitment to the objectives of the Pilot Program, no real change in the social, economic and environmental conditions of the Amazon and the areas within the domain of the Atlantic Forest may be expected.
The greatest innovation of the PD/A has been its understanding of the communities as the principal actors in the process of sustainable development.
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