‘Amazon 4.0’ Project: Defining a Third Way for the Amazon

The raging fires that have devastated broad swathes of the Amazonian forest this past summer have reminded the public of the vulnerability of that region to climate hazards (droughts and subsequent risks of fire) and to the—at times reprehensible—intentions of some Brazilian economic actors (whose short-term interests and activities require continued deforestation). Moving beyond the international reactions these have provoked, Futuribles proposes to report here on an initiative by a group of Brazilians who are proposing a ‘third way’ for the Amazon, combining the region’s assets in terms of biodiversity with the technological advances of ‘industry 4.0’.

Ismael and Carlos Nobre, who advocate this ‘Amazon 4.0’ project, outline the potential that Brazil’s Amazonian region offers and present various possible paths for the development and expansion of the Brazilian economy on the basis of these assets. Their project is based on combining the natural wealth of the Amazonian environment with traditional forms of knowledge and cutting-edge technologies (biotech, digital, artificial intelligence etc.). Will Brazil’s current government be willing to listen?