11/4 Totally awsome VISAM technical site

10/30
Mission Issues:
    The direction that this course is taking may require some adjustment.  It has become increasingly apparent that many of the proposals made by the various teams have already been executed by other organizations (whether political or non-governmental) in some form or another.  
    For example, groups 3, 5, 6 and 7 have proposed using either remote sensing or broad baseline sampling in order to properly characterize the Amazon.  The extent to which each group plans on utilizing these procedures has not been determined, however recent research has brought to light the System for the Vigilance of the Amazon ( SIVAM ), "a $1.4 billion system that provides comprehensive electronic surveillance of Brazil's immense and relatively undeveloped Amazon region " (Space Daily Aug. 12, 2002 [article] ). SIVAM may not be the entire solution to the problem of assessing and monitoring the rainforest, but it "will link radars, sensors and satellites connected to regional coordination centers through a vast telecommunication network,"(Raytheon June 13, 2002).  SIVAM is more comprehansive and technically sound (with its 25 radar stations, three remote sensing aircraft and three data processing centers) than any program that Mission 2006 will be able to produce.
    Another example is the Pilot Program to Conserve the Brazilian Rain Forests .  This program involves the Brazilian Government, the G7, the European Union, the Netherlands, the UNEP, UNDP, the World Bank and a number of other NGOs.  The program is a multipronged attempt at consolidating Brazil's environmental policy at the federal level, improving the enforcement of these policies at the state and local levels, and providing "investments in natural and social science research and field applications are needed: (i) to ensure that the economic benefits of genetic biodiversity in Brazil’s rain forests can be realized, and (ii) to provide a basis for the development and dissemination of sustainable approaches to economic exploitation of the forests, "(The World Bank 3/1992).  Outlined in 1990 at the G7 convention in Houston, TX, and then established in 1992, the program is currently worth $190 million and estimated to cost $330 million upon completion. Twenty-two projects have been defined as objectives of the program; two have already been completed with thirteen in the works and seven being prepared.  Many of these projects overlap with the issues that Mission 2006 is trying to adress, if they are not the real-world manifestation of programs we have been outlining.  For one, The Demonstrations Projects for the non-governmental sector is working with 135 communities to support projects that implement new development and conservation strategies: "Fish culture in small tanks, forestry systems, community plantations and forest management are examples of projects being carried out by non-governmental institutions. The indigenous communities had 22 million hectares of their land demarcated and legalized, with the Project to Protect Indigenous Lands and Peoples of the Legal Amazon, under FUNAI's responsibility. Four extractive reserves were consolidated for the rubber tapping communities, in a total of more than 2 million hectares,"(Brazilian Embassy in London [Pilot Program site] ).  The Pilot Program is, for the most part, more expansive and detailed than any proposal we will make for the preservation and sustained development of the Amazon Basin and thus we, as Mission 2006, need to assess what exact function our proposals will serve.  
    Will we simply try to plug the holes in SIVAM and the Pilot Program? acting on issues that we feel they do not address properly? or will we try to become a subprogram of these programs, recieving funding and working under their jurisdiction? or will we just pretend that they don't exist? These issues need to be resolved, soon.


Analysis of Brasil's Economic Health 11/11

Analysis of Brazil's Exports 11/17

Indigenous Issues

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Group Ten Definition of an A