Belem and the World Social Forum 2009

Belem and the World Social Forum 2009

Belem, the capital in the state of Para, has a privileged ans strategic location in the extreme north of Brazil, and therefore considered to be the most important gateway to the northern part of the country and to Amazonia. It’s the biggest city in the brazilian amazon with approximately 1,5 million inhabitants.

(the photo show Belem in the distance and the lush rainforest and expresses the paradox of a large city in the rainforest region. Belem is also situated where the Atlantic and the Amazon converge)

The World Social Forum is based on a Charter of Principles.
Around these principles people gathered in Porte Alegre in 2001, it has been held in India, Kenya, Veneszuela and Brazil. There have also been local, national, region and other manifestations of forums around the world.

A short history can be found at http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/main.php?id_menu=19&cd_language=2

Why the Amazon?
The International Council of the WSF, composed by 130 entities, chose the Pan Amazon to host the WSF 2009 in recognition of the strategic role that the region has for all mankind. The region is one of the last areas of the planet still relatively preserved in a geographical area of immeasurable value for their biodiversity and that adds a wide and diverse range of social movements, labor unions, associations, cooperatives and civil society organizations fighting for an Amazon sustainable, compassionate and democratic, articulated in networks and forums, building this ample movement to resist the prospect of another model of development.
The WSF 2009 Amazon will be guided by three strategic guidelines:

• effectively be a space where you build alliances that strengthen proposals for action and formulation of alternatives;

• be hegemonized by self-managed activities;

• and have a clear emphasis in the pan-Amazon.

The effort and demand of the Pan Amazon were recognized and embraced by the International Council (CI) and the result will be one of the major novelties of the WSF in its 8th edition, a full day devoted to the theme Pan-Amazon. The Day of Pan-Amazon. On that day, the testimonies, panels, lectures, discussions, marches and alliances between peoples of the Pan-Amazon and the will world also understand as the 5th edition of the Pan-Amazonian Social Forum (FSPA).