Closing the Environment Week, Embrapa and International Tropical Timber Organization present the video “Community and Family Forest Management – A Collective Action”. The product marks the completion of the "Bom Manejo - phase 2" project and draws attention to the importance of working in a network and strengthening local communities for the use and conservation of forests in the Amazon. The "Bom Manejo 2" project is coordinated and executed by Embrapa with financial support from the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), the Amazon Development Institute Foundation (Fidesa), the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) and the Japanese Government. The video reflects one of the main results of the project, which is the coordinated work between different institutions towards a positive agenda for community and family forest management, according to researcher Milton Kanashiro, from Embrapa Amazônia Oriental, coordinator of Bom Manejo 2. “Participation of the project in the construction of the Community Forest Management Observatory and the involvement in the Amazon Forest Forum, which brings together companies and communities, bring a very important legacy to the moment in which we live”, he points out. With testimonies from community members from the "Verde para Sempre Extractive Reserve" (Resex), located in Porto de Moz (PA) and representatives from local, state and federal institutions, the video highlights the collective and coordinated action of different actors as a fundamental strategy against vectors that threaten the maintenance of forests. The Resex “Verde para Sempre” is the largest Conservation Unit for sustainable use in Brazil, which this year celebrates 20 years of its creation. There are around 3,000 families organized in more than 100 communities that manage the forest to extract timber and non-timber products. Results over two phases In the first phase of the Bom Manejo project, tools were developed to support and facilitate the execution of forest management practices and forest monitoring. There are four software programs that focus on different but complementary aspects of the activity: logging planning (BOManejo); monitoring forest growth and dynamics (MFT); financial monitoring of forestry operations (MEOF); and monitoring sustainability and overall management performance (MOP). In its second phase, these tools were improved and adapted to other platforms. The project carried out numerous training sessions with timber companies, forestry professionals and in Resex “Verde para Sempre” communities, to disseminate good management practices and use of these tools. Photo: Jaime Souzza Strengthening community and familiar forest an management One of the steps towards strengthening community and family forest management, according to Milton Kanashiro, from Embrapa, was the establishment, in March this year, of a Working Group (Ordinance GM/MMA nº 1,019, of 3/21/2024) to coordinate the preparation of the Federal Community and Family Forest Management Program, to be established within the scope of the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change and the Brazilian Forest Service – SFB. “The ordinance represents the resumption of the program at the federal level and will certainly give a great boost to activity within communities”, assesses the researcher. “Forest management came to organize our activity, our planning within the forest, considering our economy, our well-being and the environment in which we live”, says Margarida Ribeiro, resident of Resex. "When everyone coordinates among themselves, it is possible to better articulate actions, programs and public policies in favor of the use and conservation of the forest. Keeping the forest alive and standing is Brazil's commitment to the planet and the populations of the Amazon", concludes Luciana Valadares, from the Biodiversity Secretariat, of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MMA). Translation: Milton Kanashiro