Community environmental defence is a conservation approach that empowers local people to be the first line of defence against threats to their land. It is the approach used to protect the forest in the Rio Cautário RESEX, in Rondônia, where seven traditional communities manage a nature conservation project in partnership with Permian Brasil, the Brazilian arm of Permian Global.
Trained local teams of Community Environmental Defenders, with deep knowledge of their territory, standing in the way of agricultural expansion, illegal deforestation and wildfires.
With specialised training and access to state-of-the-art technologies and equipment, the Community Environmental Defence Agents are essential for rapid response to fire outbreaks, illegal encroachment, and continuous monitoring of the area. Beyond the prevention of fires and illegal deforestation, these teams also work to ensure the integrity of ecosystems and the conservation of biodiversity.
The participatory management model developed in the Rio Cautário RESEX has proven to be highly effective, combining territorial protection with socioeconomic development, through professional training and the strengthening of territorial governance of local communities.
Based on this experience, here are eight reasons why this integrated, community-led approach is working:
1. Operational Efficiency: Local communities are often the first to reach fire outbreaks in the territory, allowing for a rapid response that minimises damage. Their permanent presence in the territory also allows for consistent monitoring of protected areas, which is essential for the data collection and reporting of a successful forest carbon project.
2. Local Knowledge: Local knowledge is invaluable when it comes to conservation. A deep, first-hand understanding of a territory means the project communities are familiar with the threats, know the vulnerable point and how best to quickly reach them.
3. Ecosystem strengthening: Prevention is the best cure. Embedding environmentally positive, sustainable practices into the everyday working life of forest communities – such as smart agriculture, waste management, low-impact building practices – can reduce the pressures on surrounding ecosystems, helping them to grow more resilient.
4. Community Governance: Promoting the active participation of local communities in conservation strengthens territorial governance, reinforces ownership and pride, and supports the long-term sustainability of the project.
5. Protection of Biodiversity: People who grow up and spend their lives in a forest generally have a more instinctive knowledge of the presence, abundance and habits of the local plant and animal species. Combining this knowledge with formal biodiversity training provides a far richer basis for developing effective species conservation programmes.
6. Rewarding protection: The communities of the Rio Cautário RESEX have long fought to protect their home. By establishing a forest carbon project, the climate benefits of their ongoing protection of the forest can be measured in carbon credits, which means their actions and commitments can be recognised and rewarded.
7. Social Development: Hiring and training local people to carry out the essential environmental protection activities is just one of the ways the project is working to increase livelihood opportunities and deliver social improvements.
8. Integration with Public Policies: The programmes developed through the project, and which enlist local people as team members, are designed to complement the actions of government agencies and strengthening the implementation of environmental and climate policies at a local level.
Hiring and training local community members as environmental defense agents is an approach used in all Permian Global projects. It helps establish lasting, fair, trust-based partnership with the communities most directly affected by the health of the forest.
This logic also explains the long-term collaborations and partnerships that Permian Global works to foster with public authorities, environmental NGOs, and companies to generate greater real-time data dissemination and information sharing, based on cutting-edge monitoring technology, to improve regional responses to fires and other forest threats.
The Environmental Protection Observatory of the Rio Cautário Extractive Reserve is a monitoring and alarm system that shares data and alerts on fire outbreaks by remote sensing in near real time through a communications network of the participating groups.
Learn more (Portuguese) about this initiative here.
Get to know the achievements of the team of environmental defense agents in the Rio Cautário RESEX up close. Watch the video tribute for the results obtained in 2024, a year marked by one of the worst droughts in the Amazon:
Check out Permian Brasil’s YouTube Channel here.
(Article based on an original (Portuguese) from Permian Brazil)
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