Community organization as strategy of sustainable development: the results of the first year of the GESTAR project in Amazon portal territory, MT, Brazil.

Abstract

GESTAR is a project developed by the Ministry of Environment to improve bothlife quality and environmental standards in rural areas through the use of toolsaimed at stimulating participation and commitment from family producers andcivil society organizations. The construction of a reference unit to fostersustainable economic development was one of the actions developed by thisproject in the Amazon Portal territory. One hundred families from fourcommunities in the municipality of Carlinda (Mato Grosso state) were selectedto participate the project. The project was divided into four stages: diagnosis;participative planning; actions to enhance capacity building and communityorganization; and project evaluation. As a result of project implementation, thecommunities came out of a state of deep social disarticulation to engage inanother form of social organization in which values such as trust and solidaritywere translated into specific behaviors. From an environmental standpoint, theproject resulted in discussions about the environmental impacts of production.Finally, from an economic perspective, commercialization of production andpurchase of goods through collective means allowed an immediate increase infamily income. The project allowed participants to identify the importance ofinvolving all social actors connected with economic development, especially theorganized civil society and the local State, in a process labeled as "socially fairprofessional capacity building of rural production.