The IDB Amazon Initiative fosters socio-environmentally sustainable and inclusive economic development models that benefit the region's diverse communities.
The Initiative approaches the development of the Amazon region from a unique territorial perspective, which means that it will integrate sectoral solutions in a spatial context, focused on specific and strategically identified geographic locations (hubs, clusters or corridors). In this sense, the Initiative will base its activities and decisions on a precise knowledge of the territory that will be nurtured by the contributions of clients, local actors, researchers and IDB Group teams. This knowledge will be processed and continuously updated in a geospatial information system that, in turn, will serve all these actors as fundamental collective data intelligence to strengthen coordination and collaboration at the regional level.
Amazonia360 complements and integrates very important efforts made by other working groups, researchers and expert panels from the perspective of the IDB Group and its clients.
The first maps of the IDB Group's Amazon Initiative are published below. You can review the preview version and then download the full resolution version by following the download link.
Maps are just printed outputs of a complex set of databases managed with ArcGIS Pro, our geospatial information management application. Each map has been carefully elaborated by combining a maximum of data sources validated by the scientific community and specialized groups. It seeks to minimize the risk of error and provide the most reliable information possible for interpretation and use. Like any human work, maps are always subject to various interpretations and are in a state of continuous evolution.
TERRITORIAL SCOPE MAP
PROTECTED AREAS
INDIGENOUS TERRITORIES
THREATENED SPECIES AND KEY BIODIVERSITY AREAS
SPECIES COUNT ANALYSIS
The making of the map
The video shows the successive stacking of biodiversity-related data layers. Each map represents the extent of the habitat of one of the 13,000 species included in the IUCN Red List of endangered species. On top of each other, these layers hold the key to the areas where threatened species are concentrated in greatest numbers. How can we unravel this collection of data? It is done using an analysis that expands the entire "thickness" of the stack of layers, using a pattern map of hexagonal cutters, cells with defined boundaries and borders that cover the entire Amazon. Each cell scans the small sector of the endangered species layer underneath it, and counts them. We can color the cells according to the number of these species and produce a single synthesis map based on this hexagonal grid, made with data from thousands of stacked layers of data. The hexagon-based map reveals the areas with the highest number of endangered species
INTRODUCING THE CLUSTER CONCEPT
The IDB's Amazon Initiative seeks to concentrate efforts in strategic geographic areas for the countries of the region. In this way, it seeks to consolidate alliances with regional partners around common problems in areas of high importance for regional functioning and integration. In this way, development and conservation efforts are optimized by consolidating synergies between actors, promoting economies of scale and fostering the exchange of knowledge.
The specific areas chosen to initiate actions are those that function as "clusters", groups of population settlements and activities with similar needs and deficiencies. These clusters are in the process of identification and analysis, in a joint work with local actors, regional and international partners and IDB Group teams. The clusters are defined on the ground based on one or more second-level political-administrative entities (municipalities or provinces). Thus, the composition of a cluster facilitates the identification of public and private actors in each entity and ensures the greatest proximity to the local population and local institutions and administrators.
The importance of borders in the exercise of regional development and conservation of a large and complex territory.
A first cluster of concentration of attention and effort is centered at the three border intersection of Brazil, Colombia and Peru, on the Amazon River.
The Brazil-Colombia-Peru Cluster
Credits:
Created with images by EnricoPescantini - "amazon forest river iquitos peru" • drgost - "Rainforest of Amazon in South America from the space view, realistic planet Earth rotation" • jkraft5 - "Puerto Narino and River View"