Lope de Aguirre - The Mad Conquistador of the Amazon

Lope de Aguirre was a Spanish Basque conquistador in South America. He was born around 1510 in Araotz Valley, in the Basque region of Guipúzcoa, part of the Kingdom of Castile in present day Spain.

Wonderful news of the treasures of Peru were reaching Seville during the early 1530s.  Hernando Pizarro arrived with a fifth of the royal treasure of the uncrowned Inca chief Atahualpa: bars of gold and silver, diadems, sheets of precious metal, sacred vases, idols and plates. News spread across Spain and adventurers, Aguirre among them, flocked to Seville, where expeditions were put together.

Aguirre joined a team of 250 men selected by Rodrigo Buran, and they arrived in Peru in 1536 or 1537. He worked alongside Peru’s first viceroy, Blasco Núñez Vela, who arrived from Spain in 1544 with orders to put into practice the New Laws, stifle the Encomiendas (a system where conquistadors were granted trusteeship over the indigenous peoples they conquered), and release the natives.

The conquistadors did not like these laws, particularly because they barred them from taking advantage of the Indians. In 1551 the judge Francisco de Esquivel arrested Aguirre and charged him with violation of the laws for the protection of the Indians. The judge discounted Aguirre’s reasons and his claims of gentry and sentenced him to a public whipping.

Aguirre was so enraged with the punishment he publicly vowed to take revenge upon the judge.  The judge fled after his mandate ended, changing his residence constantly. Aguirre pursued him on foot to Lima, Quito, and then on to Cuzco. In three years he ran 6,000 km by foot, unshod, on the trail of Esquivel. Aguirre found him in Cuzco at last, in the house of the magistrate; while Esquivel was having a siesta in the library, wearing a coat of mail he always wore for fear of Aguirre. Aguirre cut his temples.

He took part in the civil wars among the Spanish conquistadors in Peru after Francisco Pizarro occupied that country in 1533. In 1559 he joined an expedition to search for the renowned El Dorado. The expedition was led by Pedro de Ursúa, a gentleman, who was charged with confirming Orellana´s discoveries and searching for the El Dorado and other riches such as cinnamon.  They initiated their mission down the Marañón and the Amazon river.  Aguirre put together a group of conspirators and ousted and murdered Ursúa along with his wife.  They initially placed Fernando de Guzmán as leader, but soon thereafter Guzman was also murdered by Aguirre. 

Their initial mission was to reach the Atlantic through the Amazon delta, yet Aguirre changed the mission to return as a rebellious group into Peru and take over its riches.  It is unknown whether Aguirre was able to take a shortcut back through the Casiquiare canal into the Orinoco river and present day Venezuela or if he actually completed the mission through the Amazon, following currents that led him back to the Caribbean.  Along the way, Aguirre and his men terrorized and destroyed native villages.

During the journey Aguirre relinquished allegiance to the king and sought to return to Peru to set up an empire there that would be independent of Spain.

Aguirre, the Wrath of God is an independent 1972 German film written and directed by Werner Herzog about Aguirre. The story follows Aguirre’s travels as he leads a group of conquistadors down the Amazon River in search of the legendary city of gold, El Dorado. This was the first of five film alliances between Herzog and the explosive lead actor Klaus Kinski. Aguirre opened to widespread critical acclaim, and rapidly developed a huge global cult following.

Noted film critic Roger Ebert describes the film as “one of the great haunting visions of the cinema.” The haunting, ecclesiastical music sets its tone. Herzog doesn’t rush the conquistadors’ voyage, or fill it with artificial episodes of suspense and action. Ebert compares the film to 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Apocalypse Now, and describes Herzog as “the most visionary [of modern filmmakers] and the most obsessed with great themes.”

Lead Klaus Kinski was “made to play villains,” says Time Magazine. In this film, he depicts Aguirre’s madness as he tries to tame the wilds of Peru with almost frightening believability. Aguirre’s crew, under assault from the natives, had gone mad too. “That is no arrow,” one crewmember says in the film. “We only imagine the arrows because we fear them.”

The film follows the same journey that Aguirre takes, quiet at first, and pleasantly mysterious. The jungle grows increasingly hostile as the film progresses. We learn from a local Indian that this wilderness goes on forever. He cautions Aguirre, “God, in his anger, never finished this place.” This comes long after the opening narration informs us that El Dorado is and always has been a ruse invented by the Indians to drive Europeans, who the Indians now know are clearly not gods, deeper and deeper into the wilderness.

In 1561, at the end of his failed mission along the Amazon, Aguirre wrote a letter to King Philip II, which rejected the discovery and invention of America as the object of European mythical aspirations. This small piece of protest is considered the most radical of the reports, dispatches and chronicles sent to Spain from the colonies. Aguirre openly blames the king for deserting him and not respecting the old promises of mutual service.

The letter begins, “From Lope de Aguirre, your lesser vassal, old Christian, of middling parents but fortunately of noble blood, native of the Basque country of the kingdom of Spain, citizen of the town of Onate,” and continues, “I demand of you, King, that you do justice and right by the good vassals you have in this land, even though I and my companions (whose names I will give later), unable to suffer further the cruelties of your judges, viceroy, and governors, have resolved to obey you no longer.

“I am certain there are few kings in hell because there are few kings, but if there were many none would go to heaven. Even in hell you would be worse than Lucifer, because you all thirst after human blood. But I don't marvel nor make much of you. For certain, I and my 200 harquebus-bearing maranones, conquistadors and noble, swear solemnly to God that we will not leave a minister of yours alive, because I already know how far your clemency reaches.”

Aguirre seized Isla Margarita in 1561 and cruelly suppressed any resistance to his reign. His open mutiny against the Spanish crown came to an end when he crossed to the mainland in an attempt to take Panama. He killed his own daughter Elvira when he was surrounded at Barquisimeto, Venezuela, “because someone that I loved so much should not come to be bedded by uncouth people.”

Aguirre was eventually captured and shot, and his body was cut in quarters and sent to various cities across Venezuela.

Francisco de Orellana - A brief history of the first explorer of the Amazon

Francisco de Orellana was a Spanish explorer and conquistador. He may have been a relative of Francisco Pizarro, the conquistador of Peru. Like his Pizarro relatives, Orellana was born in Trujillo, Estremadura. He reached the New World as a teenage boy and participated in the Pizarro conquest of Peru, where he lost an eye in battle. He was one of Gonzalo Pizarro’s lieutenants during his 1541 mission across the Andes Mountains east of Quito into the heart of South America in quest of El Dorado and the Country of Cinnamon.

They faced tremendous challenges overcoming the Andes, leaving from Quito, when they finally arrived at the Napo River, one of the Amazon river´s tributaries that lead to the Amazon basin lowlands.  They faced Indian attacks and captured many, who under duress kept confessing to there being a land of gold and nutmeg downriver.  After weeks of hardship and with their food reserves running low (by this time they had eaten their horses and dogs), Orellana was ordered by expedition leader Pizarro to sail downriver in search of food and signs of treasure and then return.

Orellana was chosen because he knew many native languages, and could communicate with the Indians and get help. But he and his men didn’t find any villages while navigating the Napo River. Instead, they suffered so much hunger they ate their own shoes.

He descended the stream to its junction with the Amazon River, in present-day northeast Peru; instead of returning, as he had promised Gonzalo Pizarro, he proceeded down the river to the Atlantic Ocean. Orellana managed to navigate the length of the Amazon in one of the most surprisingly successful expeditions in known history, arriving at the river’s mouth on August 24, 1542.  He then managed to follow sea current up the coast of South America, finally reaching the Caribbean and Isla Margarita in Venezuela, from where he was taken to Spain to meet the king and tell of his amazing journey.  He is known as the first European to descend the Amazon river.

Chaplain of the expedition, Gaspar de Carvajal, wrote a diary of their voyage, which provides interesting, if not always accurate, descriptions of what the Amazon was like before Europeans arrived.  He describes fertile croplands and turtle farms in the heart of the Amazon Basin. Long thought to be exaggerations, attitudes to Orellana’s claims are beginning to change. His description of continuous riverside human settlements are slowly being met by the archeological record, showing that the Amazon is a place that can sustain large human agglomerations, as long as the appropriate technology for sustainability exists. 

He may have well led the first party of Europeans through a greatly advanced civilization that thrived in the Amazon for centuries – a civilization whose existence was thought to be impossible. 

The excavation of ruins and even fragments of the language of Amazonians with words for crops they were supposedly unable to farm suggests that there were complex agricultural practices in place thousands of years ago.

Archaeologists have found that these Amazonian farmers apparently developed raised fields over half-mile long with irrigation canals in between. Somehow they found a method to enrich the soil with a microorganism that creates a dark, loamy stratum with potting-soil like qualities. Up to 10% of the Amazon Basin has been terra-formed in this manner by the ancients – an area the size of France.

A Spanish expedition in 1617 remarked on the extent and high quality of a network of raised causeways connecting villages in the Amazon together. These causeways can still be seen as straight lines cutting across the savannah. Alongside them run canals, the result of their construction. This canal network could have sustained hundreds of thousands of people, and archaeologists believe that this area was home to a society that had totally mastered its environment.

During his voyage, Orellana also described encountering a tribe of women very white and tall and doing as much fighting as 10 men. These warrior women were very skilled with bows and arrows, and their queen, Conori, was said to have great treasures. Their formidable strength brought to mind the Amazons of Greek mythology, and Orellana’s tales of these female warriors gave the river and the region its name.

Orellana’s own name remains a bit stained owing to the suspicion that he abandoned Pizarro in a desperate situation. However, his men testified and he was found innocent. When he returned to Spain, Orellana sought and obtained a dispensation to explore and rule New Andalusia, meaning roughly the land south of the great river. He sailed from Sanlúcar on May 11, 1545, with an inadequately outfitted fleet and accompanied by his wife, Ana de Ayala, whom he had married in Spain. 

After being appointed governor of New Andalusia, he and his men arrived at the Amazon river delta, built a riverboat and explored 500 km of the region. They faced many hardships and of the 300 men he had taken with him from Spain only 44 were rescued at sea by another Spanish fleet.  Orellana was one of the casualties – he died in November 1546.

The Amazon is the world’s second-longest river at 3980 miles. Its collects water from 40 percent of the continent, in the form of thousands of tributaries, many of which are more than 1000 miles long. As with the Nile, the people who lived in the Amazon in ancient times used the river for agriculture and transportation.

There is now an inland province of Ecuador named Orellana, the capital of which is Puerto Francisco de Orellana. The province is named after Orellana, who is said to have sailed from somewhere near the town to the Atlantic Ocean. He did this trip several times looking for El Dorado and a rumored nutmeg forest, nutmeg at the time being a very expensive spice.

Orellana, fanatical as he was with finding gold, was known as the “Gilded Man.” He claimed to have seen the glittering El Dorado, stories of which still reverberate through the archaeological community, and while it is perhaps easier to believe that Orellana was a fraud, there are still those who look for remains of the past that might confirm that the legendary city did exist.

The legend of El Dorado apparently originated in a tradition of the Chibcha people of Colombia who each year selected a chieftain and rolled him in gold, which he then ceremonially washed off in a sacred lake, casting offerings of emeralds and gold into the waters at the same time. This custom had evidently vanished long before the coming of the conquistadors, but the tales lived on and grew into a legend of a land of gold and plenty.

Orellana’s exploration also produced an international issue between Spain and Portugal because, according to the Treaty of Tordesilhas, the delta of the Amazon should be ruled by Portugal. It would only be resolved a century later with the exploration of Pedro de Teixeira.

Amélioration de l'administration publique ISO 9000

Cette semaine a marqué la première certification ISO 9000 obtenue par l'administration de l'Etat actuel ; Cette certification est la première d’une liste que nous espérons très longue.

L'IPEM (Institut des Poids et Mesures de l'Amazonas) a été recommandé pour la certification sans exception, après un an de travail laborieux, certainement reconnaissable par ceux qui ont déjà travaillé sur la mise en place d’un système de qualité.

L'ISO fournit un cadre de trois applications pratiques qui, même si elles ne garantissent pas la bonne gestion, donnent au moins la certitude qu'un effort a été fait pour démontrer un engagement continu pour l'amélioration. Ce qui peut, en soi, par la suite être qualifiée de bonne gestion.

Les trois applications pratiques sont :

·         Gestion du talent : La certification ISO exige qu'un décideur prête une attention particulière aux qualifications et à la formation de ses administrés. Des heures de formation et une obtention de diplôme appropriée sont des conditions de base requises pour l'accomplissement de la certification ISO.

·         Indicateurs : Comme l’a déjà dit Peter Drucker, le père de la gestion moderne :” Ce qui peut être mesuré peut être géré”. L’ISO exige l'établissement d’indicateurs aux principaux niveaux de l'organisation.

Par exemple, une organisation devrait mesurer :

La productivité d'un secteur (nombre de processus conclus), la moyenne du retard des processus (tout en recherchant toujours des possibilités plus rapides), et la qualité (dans combien de cas la répétition est-elle nécessaire).

Un indicateur d'importance capitale, pas encore toujours considéré en tant que tels dans le domaine du service public, est la satisfaction du public par les services fournis.

Par exemple, IPEM prend le soin précis des articles importants à l'économie, telle que les taximètres, les balances, les pompes d’essence, et autres.

Dans ce processus, il fait un contact fréquent avec les consommateurs aussi bien qu'avec les entrepreneurs.

Maintenant, L'IPEM mesure la satisfaction de ces utilisateurs et est audité pour vérifier le traitement précis d’éventuelles réclamations.

·         Amélioration continue:

L'ISO exige l’établissement d’un organigramme des processus et la vérification d’éventuelles oblitérations et difficultés dans l'exécution du cahier des charges.

Après cette vérification, il y aura naturellement toujours des problèmes existants.

L'ISO dispose d'un outil, le traité de non-conformité, qui assure que chaque fois qu’un problème significatif est découvert, il y aura une recherche de solution durable.

L'auditeur externe, en exécutant l'audit, recherche des évidences que l'organisation vise toujours ces améliorations.

Une fois mise en application avec rigueur, ces simples pratiques sont d'une efficacité incontestable dans l'administration privée ou publique.

L'ISO systématise l'adoption de ces pratiques et garantit leur continuité.

Aujourd'hui, nous opérons avec plus de dix agences d'Etat ayant implémentées ces pratiques, avec bientôt la certification probable de SEPLAN (Secrétariat de la planification), de CIOPS (Centre Intégré des Opérations de Police) et de CGL (Commission des Achat Généraux). D’autres seront lancées sous peu.

Je voudrais, en conclusion, faire une suggestion à ceux qui ont adhérés aux principes des pratiques mentionnées ci-dessus.

Que ceux qui connaissent des décideurs publics, quelque soit leur sphère, les interrogent sur ce qu'ils font par rapport à chacun des points mentionnés dans cet article. Une recherche est-elle faite sur la satisfaction de vos clients, le public ?  Quelles sont les politiques impliquées dans l'évaluation des administrés, la formation, et le recrutement ? Quel système adoptez-vous dans votre recherche d'amélioration continue ?

C'est seulement avec une société exigeante que nous pouvons avoir un certain espoir d'un meilleur futur.

Alfred Russel Wallace: Great Explorer and Discoverer in the Amazon

Alfred Russel Wallace was a British natural scientist, explorer, geographer, and anthropologist. He did extensive fieldwork, first in the Amazon River basin and then in the Malay Archipelago, where he identified the Wallace Line dividing the fauna of Australia from that of Asia. He is best known for independently proposing a theory of natural selection, which prompted Charles Darwin to publish his own theory. Wallace is considered co-discoverer of the theory.

Wallace was the eighth of nine children, born on January 8, 1823 at Usk, Monmouthshire. He was educated at Hertford Grammar School and left at the age of 14. In 1844 Wallace became a schoolmaster at the Collegiate School in Leicester, where he met the naturalist Henry Walter Bates. Wallace convinced Bates to join him on an expedition to the Amazon to collect specimens.

Before leaving for the Amazon, Wallace gave himself an intensive crash course in flora and fauna, making local collecting trips and haunting the British museum. For Bates and Wallace, who sailed in 1848, the jungle was their university, as well as a source of income. Growing interest in natural history was creating a dynamic market in reports and samples from the field. A practice that today would be considered biopiracy was then common and the only sustenance available to fund poor scientist doing field research across the world.

Wallace and Bates signed on with an agent, Samuel Stevens, who taught them taxidermy and species preservation, planned their itinerary to accord with the needs of collectors, sent them bottles and cash when they ran out, and advertised their findings in specialized journals, selling their specimens to institutions like the British Museum and Kew Gardens, as well as to wealthy amateurs.

The two naturalists spent their first year collecting near Belem do Para, then explored inland separately, occasionally meeting to discuss their findings. Another young explorer, botanist Richard Spruce, along with Wallace’s younger brother Herbert, briefly joined them. Wallace charted the Rio Negro for four years, collecting specimens and making notes on the people and languages he encountered as well as the geography, flora and fauna.

Wallace noted that range boundaries for a number of animal species in the Amazonian rain forest seemed to coincide with the region’s many rivers. That observation marked the origin of one of the foremost theories for why the Amazon harbors such extraordinary biodiversity for its size. This “riverine border hypothesis” in its modern form posits that the Amazon’s main rivers functioned as natural barricades to gene flow between populations.  Such thoughts were precursors and complementary to his findings in the Malay Archipelago, where species differentiation across islands finally drove him to conceive the theory of natural selection.  The Amazon was the first instance of thinking of species differentiation due to physical boundary, be it because of rivers or islands.

In his publication titled Tropical Nature and Other Essays, Wallace notes that,

Warning colours ... are exceedingly interesting, because the object and effect of these is, not to conceal the object, but to make it conspicuous. To these creatures it is useful to be seen and recognized; the reason being that they have a means of defence which, if known, will prevent their enemies from attacking them, though it is generally not sufficient to save their lives if they are actually attacked.

By early 1852 Wallace was in ill health and in no condition to go any further. During his travels back downriver, his canoemen plotted to kill him and take over his belongings.  Since he had been in the Amazon for so long, he had learned Portuguese and could overhear their plot at night, from which he escaped by “convincing” his men at gunpoint to paddle back to Barra do Rio Negro.

He decided to quit South America, and began the long trip back down the Amazon river to Para. To Wallace’s dismay, he found that not only had his brother Herbert died of yellow fever, but most of the collections from the previous two years that he had been forwarding down the Amazon had been delayed at the dock at Barra do Rio Negro because of a mix-up, he would therefore have to secure passage for these as well as himself.

He soon set out for England, but unfortunately, the brig on which he was traveling caught fire and sank, taking almost all of his possessions – including some live animals, along with it. For ten days Wallace and his comrades struggled to survive in a pair of badly leaking lifeboats, then were sighted and picked up by a passing cargo ship also making its way back to England.

He was distraught after arriving in England with none of his notes and collections of six years of hard labor within the forest, but he was able to recover parts of his work from memory or from collections previously sent.  He lived on the insurance settlement for his collection for eighteen months, during which he vacationed in Switzerland, attended professional meetings and delivered papers, and produced two books, Palm Trees of the Amazon and their Uses, and A Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro. He also wrote six academic papers, which included Monkeys of the Amazon.

Wallace published several other books, including:

• Darwinism
• Miracles and Modern Spiritualism
• My Life: A Record of Events and Opinions
• The Evidence of Literary and Professional Men to the Facts of Modern Spiritualism
• The Moral Teachings of Spiritualism
• The Old Force, Animal Magnetism and Clairvoyance

In an article titled The Dawn of a Great Discovery, Wallace speaks of how, after his return from the Amazon he was, in 1854, preparing for his visit to the Malay Archipelago for a study of insects and birds of that region, when one day, he was introduced to Darwin in the insect room of the British Museum, and had a few minutes conversation with him.

Hearing that Darwin was interested in his travels and collections, Wallace wrote to him afterwards and received a very long letter in reply, telling him that he agreed with almost every word of his article. The two men agreed on the subject of evolution, and Wallace’s article prompted Darwin to publish his own theory on “The Origin of the Species.”

Wallace married Annie Mitten in 1866, after being introduced to her by Richard Spruce, who was a good friend of Miss Mitten’s father, William Mitten, an expert in mosses. The Wallaces had three children, Herbert, who died in childhood, Violet and William. On November 7, 1913 Wallace died at home in a country house he called Old Orchard. He was 90 years old.

 

A bet on Sustainable Development for the Alto Solimões region in the Amazon

It was signed on the 12th in Tabatinga, the agreement of financing between the World Bank and the State Government of Amazonas with sights on the development of the region of Alto Solimões. The loan comes with the technical endorsement and supervision of the bank, which certainly has greater value than the amount itself, US$ 24 million. The project prioritizes three main segments: sanitation, sustainable development, and health.

We search for innovative solutions of high-impact that can be applied on all three segments. In sanitation, the supply of clean water will be the priority, the main subject in the nine contemplated cities; with a project-model aimed towards the sanitary infrastructure and sewer. In health, the focus is mainly management and not new investments. In the area of sustainable development, the root is the search for an economic model in four fronts which can balance a sustainable use of the forest, versus the sad but efficient deforestation alternative.

 The region of Alto Solimões is especially sensitive; because in this vast territory there are controversial issues such as questions involving aboriginal policy, national defense, environmental preservation and anti-trafficking. Also it is possible to identify the increasing, but still low level of social development, and the multiplicity of efforts directed towards the development, since the introduction of forest handling and fisheries.

Tabatinga is one of the few economically vibrant cities of the State that has the capacity to, given a development time and an adequate model of sustainable growth, replicate it through private initiative. The region has a strong potential for local consumption and exportation to neighboring countries, not to mention the easiness of navigation during the whole year to Manaus and the Atlantic.

 In the subject of sustainable development in particular, it is sought to reach high productivity through the best existing technologies and size growth in four priority segments:

·         Forest handling: not yet has great productivity been reached by the sector, to a large extent due to existing technology directed at the cultivations of eucalyptus or pine, and not to the vast Amazonian biodiversity;

·         Non-lumber forest products: from oils and essences to fibers and chestnut, increasing efforts exist for production that must be supplemented by robust financing and assistance with modern technical support;

·         Handling of lakes: although not all of the region is abundant in lakes (they are especially prominent in Jutaí, from river Solimões and below), the handling of fishing and animal resources can be extended;

·         Fisheries: in Benjamin Constant many efforts have already been made in fisheries, including a ration plant that should be reactivated by the private initiative. The region is advantageous to the establishment of fisheries due to the fact that it is relatively plain and easily accessible, through the recently inaugurated road connecting Northern Atalaia with Benjamin Constant.

 

The project has its roots in the principal of stimulation of experimentation by private and communitarian initiative, instead of seeking to increase the state structure. There will be 20 chosen private projects in conjunction with the World Bank receiving financing of up to R$500.000. These resources are much like investments made in research and development, because they will serve to ensure that private entities find (at low risk and using the best existing technology) the most suitable solutions for the region.

The Alto Solimões, during the arrival of the first Europeans, was a region of great prosperity that used the available natural resources with sustainability. It is a rich region in black earth, which indicates its use by the Indians for centuries on agriculture. When Orellana passed through Tabatinga, he described the great wealth of the local aboriginal kingdoms, especially with regards to the the enormous fisheries of turtles and manatees from which the proteins of the local people came, a beautiful example of ancient sustainable handling.

With the European presence, much of this sustainability was destroyed with the establishment of the ideal that the forest was impeding development. We hope to make another step in the search for the harmony that will bring the balance to the equation that unfortunately still sways towards the value of the fallen forest.

 

 

Development Alternatives for Amazonas State, Brazil

Interview granted to the magazine Empório, regarding the challenges and alternatives of development for the State of Amazonas.

 

1 – What are the biggest challenges for the Free Zone of Manaus?

The Free Zone of Manaus is going through a very positive time of growth. However, we still have a long way to go to link the economic strength of the FZ with the rest of the economy of the state, principally with respect to the countryside. The Green Free Zone is a strong initiative under this direction, where we seek to increase the productivity of the countryside in some commodities such as oils, essences, foods, wood and other products, as rubber.

            The technological convergence also reveals itself to be a great challenge and opportunity. Each day it becomes more difficult to differentiate between the many electronic devices. Products that before were separate are now together; storage medias change; the legislation of the Free Zone needs to follow these changes, under the risk of becoming obsolete within the past technology.

Moreover, we face serious challenges concerning the workforce and infrastructure. Due to the sped up growth, we live in a time that I believe is similar to a “blackout” of the workforce. There are many initiatives, governmental (as UEA, CETAM) and private, but the average growth of the GDP of about 9% per year in the last five years has been more demanding than the available workforce supply.

 Our infrastructure has also improved but still leaves something to desire. In transportation we have the recent announcement of a new modern port in Manaus and the possibilities of geographic growth that the bridge to Iranduba brings. Our airport already demands augmentation, specifically to fulfill the increased demand for international flights and cargo. There is still a lack of a land connection between Manaus and Porto Velho, which can be taken care of by the BR-319 or, in a more productive manner and environmentally appropriate, by a railroad. In the field of energy, natural gas is our great strength, in the search for stability of resource and lower prices. In telecommunications, amplifying the reach of the cellular network with the third generation should be a priority in the next years, as well as the broadening in offers of internet providers, causing a reduction in the prices, which are amongst the highest in Brazil.

2 - The perpetual fiscal war with São Paulo in regard to the ICMS will be perpetual or can be solved between the two states?

The fiscal war will only be reduced with an ample reform in taxes. The current proposal of the Federal Government seeks exactly that. The commitments assumed by the President with Governor Eduardo Braga guarantee that the Free Zone will be preserved and that no other state will be able to grant similar fiscal incentives.

 

3 – Is the possible creation of Zones of Exportation Processing (ZEPs) in the northeast a threat to the Free Zone of Manaus?

The important factor is to guarantee that the ZEPs are designed in such a way not to compete directly with the FZ. For example, the limitation of sales in the domestic market is a good measure. It is necessary to equate the interests of a new national industrial policy with the implementation of a success model.

4 - For a company that intends to establish itself in the FZM, what are the advantages offered by the State Government?

The State Government not only has interest in new companies establishing themselves in Amazonas, but that the companies that are already here remain and prosper. We seek to offer equality of competition to the companies of the FZ and advantages that differentiate Amazonas from the other states. Also, we search for a good enterprise environment, in which the investor/entrepreneur is respected as a creator of jobs, actuator of growth, and payer of taxes. For this, the State Government has been searching to simplify the relationship with companies; we are still far from the ideal, but we are heading in this direction.

 

5 – You defend the creation of economic alternatives for the state. Is there any project elaborated in this direction?

We identified six sources of development for the Amazonas: The FZ, Natural Resources, Tourism, Energy, Services and Environmental Services. On the SEPLAM website we have a more detailed presentation. Basically, beyond the FZ that attributes for more than 50% of the state economy, we must take better advantage of:

·         Natural Resources: the Green Free Zone program seeks the development of our natural resources in a sustainable way. These resources include wood, rubber, products of agriculture or extraction, fishing (ornamental and for consumption), minerals, and water, amongst others.

·          Tourism: we have enormous potential. This is an activity that has been growing considerably, but still with a contribution of less than 2% of the state economy.

·         Energy: we have many opportunities arising out of the arrival of the gas-line of Urucu, improving the generation of energy and creating new companies. Moreover, biodiesel and cellulosic ethanol rise as great possibilities in improving the economy in the countryside, for consumption and possibly for exportation.

·         Services: we still need to search for improvements in many service areas. For example, we need cheaper and more abundant telecommunications (cellular and Internet mainly). We need more air routes and links, cargo and passenger, to better stimulate the competition and lower the prices. Also, we should seek for a greater availability of private health and education, due to the increasing demand. Moreover, there are possibilities of customer servicing through Call Centers, and we can stimulate the companies in the FZ to lease these services in Manaus, for example.

·         Environmental Services: with the Foundation for Sustainable Amazonas, we took a great step towards the establishment of a market of environmental services. We seek to show the value of the present forest by the services it naturally provides to Brazil and to the world. The first step is to remunerate the guardians of forest through the Bolsa Floresta. The next steps will be drawn by the State Government and the Foundation Council, which is composed of some of the most prominent entrepreneurs, leaders and thinkers of current Amazônia.

 

 

Science contributing to the economy in the Amazon

The Brazilian academy traditionally always feared working with private initiative. Research conducted for the development of economic interests was always seen as inferior to that focused in the pure knowledge. I believe, also, that this view explains the absence of private resources applied in research, which, in general are diverted to sectors where they are more welcome.

This traditional belief has been changing and I believe that the Fapeam has a fundamental role on breaking this paradigm. Successive administrations of the Sect have sought to develop lines of research directly linked to the sustainable economic exploitation of potentialities in the region.

It is in this spirit that we today have one of the most important projects of Amazonas subsidized by scientific knowledge. The project Reserve of River Juma, that is being implemented for the Foundation for Sustainable Amazonas and sponsored by the hotel chain Marriott, rises as a window we have been searching for many years in the Amazônia. My grandfather, Professor Samuel Benchimol, has for many years already stated that the solution for Amazônia would undeniably reveal itself to be preservation instead of remuneration. Successive international negotiations seem to follow in the route of mechanics of remuneration of REDD (Reduction of Emissions of Deforestation and Degradation) in new negotiations of the Kyoto Protocol, that will begin in 2013.

So that we may be remunerated, we need to pass through four phases: determination of a focus area, determination of the probability of deforestation of this area annually, gauging of the volume of carbon storage in that area, and determination of the effects that the implementation of a project that aims for the reduction of deforestation would have. A few years prior, this project would be impossible due to the lack of knowledge that we had of our forest. Today, finally, we can establish, approximately, how much carbon is in storage in one determined hectare. Also we can establish which areas of Amazônia would probably be deforested in the next years, due to extensive studies, also published in the magazine Nature.

With all these phases, proven and audited by an internationally recognized firm, we will have the financial instrument, in the form of VREs (Voluntary Reduction of Emissions), to get resources directed towards preservation. It is the first step in the remuneration of the Amazônians through preservation. It is possible, thus, that we re-equalize the equation of the economic value of the standing forest, with regards to the cut down forest. It is an equation that makes Amazônia poor and threatens the world; to change it is a priority for all.

How to rebalance the equation of deforestation in the Amazon - Part I - Environmental Services

The possibility of valuation of environmental services provided by the forest is the biggest economic opportunity of Amazônia today. In the past we had rubber, in the future we will probably have the technology to use the natural laboratory to our advantage, on the extent of which is unimaginable today; presently, for the region as a whole, environmental services can be the solution. Amazônia small rivers give the environmental services of maintenance of the climate and water cycle, prevention of global heating, and conservation of biodiversity, amongst others. With only one pertinent difference: without compensation.

Taking a step in this direction, Amazonas in conjunction with the Foundation for Sustainable Amazonas celebrated a partnership with the chain of hotels Marriott to preserve an area of 5 thousand km ², seeking the improvement of the living conditions for the local population (approximately one thousand inhabitants) and having as a counterpart the conservation of the area and subsequent provision of environmental services. This reserve, located on the River Juma, is situated in the arc of the deforestation, in such a way that, in a “normal” scenario, would be deforested in the next years.

This project is based on an initial donation on the part of the chain of hotels and, subsequently, the contributions of guests who opt on paying an additional small amount to contribute to the reserve. The project destines itself to implement improvements in monitoring and the Bolsa Floresta program, lead by the Foundation for Sustainable Amazonas, presided over by former-Minister Furlan and former-Secretary of the Environment of Amazonas Virgílio Viana. With respect to monitoring, the main actions include the use of satellite in conjunction with the presence of well equipped points of monitoring by land. The Bolsa Floresta program, aside from a payment of R$50 monthly to the families who do not participate in deforestation, also disperses payments of approximately R$750 per year for families of the small communities. This additional expense must be spent through a communitarian organization (R$50 per family), sustainable economic activities (R$350 per family) and social improvements (R$350 per family, aiming at education, health, transport and communication).

Two factors of the project are in disagreement with the rolls of policies of development previously attempted in the country.

·         The financing does not come from the public budget and yes, in this case, from the donation and income obtained by the Foundation.

·         The communities decide on how to better use the resources, and not bureaucrats separated by thousands of kilometers of distance.

The project is seeking to be compensated with VREs (voluntary reductions of carbon emissions) following CCB methodology (the main standard for forest carbon projects), due to the estimated reduction in deforestation. The CCB methodology is emerging as the standard means of evaluation of REDD projects (Reduction of Emissions based on Deforestation and Degradation), which is of extreme relevance for the Amazonian region.

Amongst the many positive factors in this example, it is of great importance the advent of the economic initiative swaying in favor of the standing forest. Thus begins the change in the economic equation “the standing forest vs. the fallen forest.” Only this re-balancing can permit the creation of a sustainable economy on Amazônia of which we will be proud of.

            With partners such as Marriott and Bradesco, the State of Amazonas will be able to reach a scenario in which the deforestation, already at a low level (of about 750 km ² or 0.05% of the state per year), will be reduced to zero. The necessity of the magnifying of these efforts is evident, leaving doubts only as to how to complete the task.

Although the hope and expectation exists that more responsible citizens and companies will voluntarily extend their contributions to similar projects (in case you are one of them, visit the site www.fas-amazonas.org), almost a thousand similar projects would be necessary to cover all of Amazônia. The accurate solution to protect all of the 4,3 million km ² of Brazilian Amazônia can occur by a new international regimen of valuation and payment for environmental services. Today, this regimen is contemplated to assume the gap following the conclusion of the Kyoto Protocol that will end in 2012; Amazonas proposes that we receive credits from carbon (for the storage of carbon) or credits for any other environmental processes (to a large extent covered in CCB methodology) in exchange for the conservation. Knowing that the benefits will be enjoyed by all, nothing more just than sharing the costs with all.

            Let us remember the rules of social justice, political balance, economic viability and environmental adequacy (Prof. Benchimol). The conservation of the forest ceases to be a sign of absence of men and economic inactivity to become a sign of humanity and regional strength.

Improvement in the public administration with ISO 9000

This week marked the first certification of ISO 9000 obtained by the present state administration; the first of what we expect will be many. The IPEM (Institute of Weights and Measures of the Amazonas) was recommended for the certification without exception, after one year of arduous work, certainly recognizable by those who already worked on implementing a quality system.

The ISO provides a framework of three practical applications that, given they do not guarantee good management, at least give the certainty that an effort has been made to demonstrate a continuous commitment to improvement that may eventually, in itself, be classified as good management. The three practical applications are:

·         Management of talent: the ISO requires that a manager pays close attention to the qualifications and training of its servers. Hours of training and an adequate graduation are basic requisites for the attainment.

·         Indicators: as Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, has already said: “What gets measured gets managed.” The ISO requires the establishment of indicators at the principal levels of the organization. For example, an organization should measure: productivity of a sector (number of concluded processes), the average delay of processes (always searching for faster possibilities), and quality (in how many cases repetition is necessary).

o       An indicator of special importance, and still not yet regarded as such in the field of public service, is the satisfaction of the public with the provided services. For example, IPEM takes precise care of important items to the economy, such as taximeters, scales, gas pumps, and others. In this process, it makes frequent contact with consumers as well as with entrepreneurs. The IPEM now measures the satisfaction of these users and gets audited to verify accurate treatment of possible claims.

·         Continuous improvement: the ISO demands the mapping of processes and verification of possible bottlenecking and difficulties in the execution of tasks. After this mapping, of course there will still be problems existing. The ISO disposes of a tool, the Treatise of Non-Conformity, which ensures that every time a significant problem is discovered, there will be a search for a lasting solution. The external auditor, while performing the audit, searches for evidences that the organization is always searching for these improvements.

These simple practices are of unquestionable effectiveness in private or public administration, if implemented with vigor. The ISO simply systemizes the adoption of these practices and guarantees the continuity of them. Today, we operate with more than ten state agencies with implementation, with probable certifications soon of SEPLAN, CIOPS and CGL, and will be initiating more shortly.

I would like, finally, to make a suggestion to those that agree with the principles of the above mentioned practices. Those that know public managers, in any spheres, question them on what they are doing in each of these items. Is there research being done of satisfaction of your clients, the public? What are the policies involved in the valuation of servers, of training, of recruitment? What system do you adopt in your search for continuing improvement? It is only with a demanding society that we can have some hope of a better future.

Interview concerning mining in Amazonas

Below follows the interview granted to the magazine In the Mine, with a focus on mining. Interview granted on the 22nd of August of 2008.

 

- What is the current panorama on the field of mining in the state?

The mining sector is of great importance for the State of Amazonas. Today, we have in operation a large mine in Pitinga, which generates a large volume of jobs, economic activity and royalties to the state. This mine alone accounts for 80% of the nation’s necessities of tin, which gives Brazil the position of exporter of the metal. The same mine still provides good potential as a tantalum resource. We also have important oil and gas lines in Urucu and Silves, with the potential of finding new deposits, caused by the large state investment in this segment. We also have a great deposit of silvinita, which has the potential of, in average time, allowing Brazil to become self-sufficient in potassium. We also have great potential in the harvesting of kaolin, bauxite, gold, and niobium, amongst others. We welcome any investors interested in the state and understand that the competition in the segment is essential for sustainable development.

 

- What are the main projects in progress?

The current focus is the project of silvinita in Nova Olinda do Norte. We worry about the current contractual situation, which causes uncertainty and can raise the risk perceived by investors in Brazil and Amazonas.

From other angle, the arrival of the gas-line of Urucu in Manaus is also considered a priority. We have these two projects in first place due to the high degree of private interest on both. Not hindering however, in the presence of interested investors, the State to seek out other possible investments.

 

- How has the government, through its Secretary, contributed to stimulate the leverage of these projects and the sector, in general?

We have sought to understand the real potential of our reserves of silvinita and the necessities and risks associated. For example, we already understand the great energy necessary for the mine to work and we are searching for possible solutions. We also must address the environmental question which needs to be equated before any investments in Amazônia. Our secretary, in both cases, will aim to eliminate impediments and to find economically viable solutions which are ecologically adjusted.

Moreover, we have studied incentives to stimulate the formation of production chains which integrate mining with industry. Industries such as paper can benefit in the near presence of kaolin harvesting, there are also possibilities in the areas of civil construction and ceramics, which can integrate the strong tax incentives of the Free Zone of Manaus with the local mineral production. In fertilization, we can integrate the potassium of Nova Olinda with natural gas for the formation of a new strong local industry directed at supplying the field of agriculture.

More than everything, however, we have sought to keep a good enterprise environment in the state, in which private investment is well regarded and in which the profit is not seen as crime or sin, but instead, as merit and remuneration for the risk taken. Contracts preservation is also essential and the state has a tradition of respect for the contracts that have arisen since the first incentives granted in the Free Zone of Manaus.

 

- The logistics for the harvesting of minerals is almost always a crucial point. How has this been addressed?

We understand that transportation is crucial in the field of mining. Of course, in each case, it must be treated individually. For example, in the case of silvinita of Nova Olinda, the deposits are located in the proximity of the Amazon and Madeira rivers, in areas where the depth of the rivers allows large ships to navigate. In the case of using the delta of the Amazon river, we can supply the entire Brazilian coast; in the case of using the Madeira river, we can reach the city of Porto Velho and from there supply the center-west, a great purchaser of fertilizer. Each case is a different case, and we must understand the necessities of each investment to better address it.

 

- What are the projections of investments in mining in the state for the next years?

There is much interest in bauxite, tantalum, kaolin and gold, beyond the already pursued silvinita, tin, gas and oil. We have all the interest in making possible the investments that follow the three basic premises of investments in Amazônia: it must be socially just, economically viable and environmentally sound.

 

Denis Minev is the Secretary of Planning and Economic Development of the State of Amazonas.

Letter of Cuiabá - in search of productivity and sustainability

Below is the text of the Letter of Cuiabá, signed by all the Governors of the Amazônia Legal, in search of a unified voice of the region. It focuses on three items in particular: a) agrarian regulation, b) science and technology and c) incentives to priority segments.

The sentiment of the letter is the viability of a formal and healthy economy which should supplant the current lack of formality and sustainability. Agrarian regulation is essential in the generation of capital that makes investment and financing possible. Science and technology must seek new forms of economical exploration that have as principle sustainability and productivity. The incentives to priority segments, as education, can indicate to private initiative the way to tread in the search of sustainability and productivity. Below follows the text of the letter:

II Forum of the Governors of the Amazônia Legal

Cuiabá, 08th of August 2008

We, governors of the States which comprise the Amazônia Legal - Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima and Tocantins, representatives of the larger dimensions that derive the popular mandate, affirm our responsibility in the conduction of the fate of the region.

We understand the importance of the environmental variable in the development of Amazônia that propagates and is present in all the subjects in a transversal form, understanding that socio-economic aspects are equally relevant.

To give materiality to the actions of the development of a sustainable region, the Forum creates the Council of Governors of the Amazônian Legislature and dispatches therewith the priority agenda:

1.      To immediately install the Managing Commission of the Plan for Sustainable Amazônia (PSA);

2.      To reaffirm the importance of Ecological and Economic Zoning (EEZ) as strategic tool for planning and regional integration, considering that the conclusion of the State EEZs and the macro-zoning of Amazônia is a priority and should be reached by a cooperative financing agreement between the State and the Union;

3.       To assure, by means of delegation, the independent participation of the states in the formularization of environmental policies (legislation, control and monitoring) so that they reflect the interests of Amazônia;

4.      To reconstruct and/or to fortify the Institutos de Terras or correlated structures in the states, seeking to establish policies of agrarian regulation, agreed to by the Amazonian states, by means of a cooperation of technique and financing between the federate entities and the Union, giving to the States the power of sovereignty in the scope of territorial order;

5.      To institute the shared strategic planning of the infrastructure actions of transportation, communications, energy and water resources, aiming for regional integration.

6.      To add to the investments of the Program of Acceleration of Growth (PAG) the complementary workmanships of the structural axis, such as: road accesses, viaducts and arcs;

7.      To approve, by the National Congress, a Project of Constitutional Amendment (PCA) that allows for the collection of ICMS in the generation, transmission, and distribution of energy, as well as in the final consumption;

8.      To implement a joint emergency program of the States and the Union to supplement regional imbalances in the sector of Science, Technology and Innovation, by establishing goals of expansion and consolidation of the infrastructure of research, production of social technologies and formation of human resources, including the duplication of the number of doctors in the stated period of five years;

9.      To introduce a differentiated model of financing for the region, being aimed at the promotion of health, that takes into account the great demographic void, distances, the precariousness of transport routes, the costs generated by procedural maintenance, and the specific endemic pictures of the region;

10.   To accomplish the proposed actions in the Green-Arc Operation, in tune with actions of the state governors;

11.   To reorganize the model of implementation and operation of the Program of Acceleration of Growth (PAG), in the scope of the Ministry of the Cities/Caixa Econômica Federal (Federal Savings Bank) aiming at autonomy for the States in order to simplify the procedures for speeding up the execution of sanitation workmanships and habitation;

12.   To promote the revision of the Program of Fiscal Adjustment (PFA), aiming to assure, within the scope of the current Law and in symmetry with the other states, access to the credit for the States of Tocantins and Amapá;

13.   To fortify the agencies of regional planning, especially the SUDAM, so that the Regional Plan of Development of Amazônia (RPDA) is effectively elaborated with the States, redesigning the Legislation that refers to the   priority economic segments;

14.   To speed the voting of the National Congress concerning the Law Project that creates the Participation Fund of the States (PFS) - Green.

15.   The resolutions signed during the meeting compose the annexes.

 

This act is set forth in the search of sustainable development of Amazônia for those who live within it.

 

Governor Blairo Maggi – Mato Grosso
Governor Ana Júlia Carepa - Pará

Governor Eduardo Braga - Amazonas
Governor Binho Marques - Acre
Governor Ivo Cassol - Rondônia

Governor Marcelo Miranda - Tocantins

Governor Waldez Góes – Amapá

Governor José de Anchieta Júnior - Roraima
Vice-Governor Luís Carlos Porto - Maranhão