The Territorial Development program is the basis of social and political support for all PSA actions in the Amazonian communities. The program works holistically toward internal and intercommunity organization, helping to ensure land rights and to promote sustainable territories managed by the forest people themselves.

The western region of Pará has traditionally experienced predatory exploitation, marked by illegal logging, forest fires, artisanal mining, land grabbing and, more recently, the fast-moving expansion of agribusiness. This reality results in constant conflicts, with a major impact on the territories and the rights of the traditional communities, and threatens the future of the world’s largest tropical forest.

Although progress has been made in the region since 2005, with the creation of new conservation units that helped reduce conflicts and deforestation, making these territories viable (including those created previously) from a social, economic and environmental standpoint remains a challenge. Additionally, many regions still need control and public policies for use of land and the environment. New economic cycles are placing pressure on forest, meaning that riverside communities, indigenous people and quilombolas are at risk of losing domain over their traditional lands.

In general, the traditional communities have no formal and legal representation before governmental bodies, making it difficult to access public policies to which they are entitled. Even internally, they lack organizational structures and leadership to advocate for their lands and for the management of their own development.

Considering this, PSA works to strengthen the representation of local communities for articulation within their territorial communities, through training and advising community leaders to defend their lands, social control of public policies, and good management of natural resources. The objective is to keep the Amazon alive for the good of the local populations, the country and the planet.