The heart of southwestern Amazônia, formed by the Peruvian state of Madre
de Dios, the Brazilian state of Acre and the Bolivian state of Pando, here referred
to as the MAP region, is encountering a decisive moment in its history. Regional
integration plans, advances in infrastructure, and the need for a better life
in the region’s societies are producing growing demands on natural resources
and ecosystems. The result is that this territory has become a regional stage
for global changes, where poverty, hunger, sickness, illiteracy, and the continuous
degradation of ecosystems are causes of great concern in the region. The integration
of innovative environmental and development initiatives offers an alternative
to alleviate this difficult situation. With this integration, we hope to improve
the quality of life in regional societies and achieve better ecosystem management
for a more secure and prosperous future. This integration will require solidarity
and effective collaboration between and within countries.
The MAP initiative is based on the exercise of two basic human rights emphasized
in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in Principle 10 of the Rio
de Janeiro Declaration: the right to have access to relevant information about
sustainable development and the right to participate in collective decisions.
The rights to know and to participate form the pillars of the democratic process,
and their exercise is essential for constructing sustainable development in
the MAP region.
The meetings of the MAP region are the results of initiatives by individuals
and institutions that seek to develop binational and trinational collaborations
in search of solutions for regional problems. The spirit of MAP reflects a social
movement across frontiers, which perceives that only through the collaboration
and integration of various segments of local, regional, national, and global
societies will it be possible to attain development of southwestern Amazônia
with the capacity to sustain itself in the coming decades and beyond, to the
year 2100.
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