Executive Summary:  The Purus River Basin in the Amazon Rainforest will be used as a case study site to examine the ecosystem services being rendered to local and global populations.  This will create the conditions for appropriate development-conservation efforts with public and private partners.   With better understanding of hydrological and rainfall cycles in this area, ‘credits’ can be sold to international partners in return for conservation which is a burgeoning international market for ‘carbon credits’.   By linking global institutions with local stakeholders, significant strides in poverty alleviation will be made.
 
Background:

• The Puris River is in South America and runs into the Amazon River through the center of the Amazon Basin.  The Puris River Basin provides highly valuable and irreplaceable ecosystem services to inhabitants of local areas.
• The carbon credit market has grown astronomically in the past few years as a response to climate change (credits are created by preventing the emission of carbon-based greenhouse gasses in one country to offset emissions in another) and is seen to have major potential to provide resources for economic growth and poverty alleviation.

 
Purpose of study:  To better understand the conditions and mechanisms required to simultaneously conserve crucial ecosystems by creating public-private partnerships to provide the resources to do so.
 
FSSD Integration:  The Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) will be applied, in conjunction with Stakeholder Group Modelling to contribute to sustainable development, poverty alleviation and the conservation of the Amazon.  Backcasting from scenarios using the FSSD principles will be used as one of the methods to understand and model ecosystem services.
 
Implications for Managers:  Better understanding of the depth and breadth of ecosystem services will allow local populations to more accurately value them with replicable metrics and therefore lead to their appropriate valuation from international sources.  This will also lead to a more robust and rigorous international credit system to mitigate climate change.
 
Implications for Researchers:  The development of projects in co-operation with international institutions and research groups has been an important mechanism for promoting international integration, reducing north-south disparities and inequalities, motivating professors/researcher and student mobility, stimulating research networks and improving scientific knowledge.
We expect to generate scientific knowledge about the effect of anthropogenic pressure and climate change on the relationship among ecosystem services, socio-economic development and stakeholders in the Amazon, which will be used to improve sustainable development models for the region.
 
Methods:  We expect to develop a multi-scale integrated model of ecosystem services for the Purus Basin in a way to value the main ecosystem services of the Purus watershed (eg: climate regulation, water and rainfall regulation and biodiversity), generating scenarios based on sustainability principles to understand the role of environmental services in local and regional poverty alleviation and establishing strategic guidelines and institutional framework to promote payments for ecosystem services (PES) for local land users. 
 
Project Contact:
Professor Andrea Viviana Waichman.   awaichman@ufam.edu.br

Project Team:
Ademar Ribeiro Romeiro, Professor
Andrea Viviana Waichman, Professor
Carlos Frederico Angelis, Professor
César Levy Franca, Sustainability Researcher
Hiroshi Noda, Professor
José Aldemir de Oliveira, Professor
Paulo Sinisgalli, Professor
Sandra Noda, Professor
Tatiana Schor, Professor
Wilson Cabral Souza, Professor
Demerval Gonçalves, Project Assistant
Eliana Noda, Project Assistant
Eduardo Villamizar Rios, Project Assistant

Publications:
Sousa Junior, W. C.; Vitor, H. P. Ecological Footprint: a regional approach in Brazil. International Society of Ecological Economics Conference. Proceedings. Nairobi, 2008.
Silva, F. B.; Sousa Junior, W.C.; Neves, A. L. X. C; Gonçalves, D. A.; Sinisgalli, P. A. A.; Romeiro, A. R. Valuation scenarios of natural resources vis a vis traditional activities in the Brazilian Amazon: a case study of the Purus watershed. International Society of Ecological Economics Conference. Proceedings. Nairobi, 2008.
Silva, F. B.; Sousa Junior, W.C.; Neves, A. L. X. C; Gonçalves, D. A.; Romeiro, A. R.; Fidelman, P. I. J. Influence of soybean and beef prices on deforestation in the Amazon region. International Society of Ecological Economics Conference. Proceedings. Nairobi, 2008.
Rios, E. V. & Waichman A. V. Deforestation and surface water quality of the Purus basin, western Brazilian Amazon. Science of Total Environment. Submitted.
Fabré, N. N; Batista, V.; Waichman, A. V.; Prang, G ; Ribeiro, M. O. A. (Eds.). Sociodiversity and floodplain conservation in the Amazon. Manaus, Editora Aram, 2007. 237 p.

Silva, A. E. P.; Angelis C. F.; Machado, L. A. T.; Waichman, A. The influence of rainfall on Purus River water quality. Acta Amazonica, in press. 2008.