A digital community network to boost Brazilian Amazon

Izabela Campos is a young farmer from Acará Açu, a community by the Acará River - a tributary of the Amazon - some 50 kilometers south of the Brazilian city of Belém. Her community lives from local agriculture, and mainly from the production of cocoa and açaí, a berry now seen as a superfood. Women's collectives such as Campos' have been betting on agroecological production.   

Monocultures, though, have been expanding to commercialize the fruit, and this growing competition has made it hard for the women to keep their businesses afloat. A poor Internet connectivity and little access to technology have made it even harder. 

To find solutions, Campos and other representatives from nine communities in Brazil's Amazon region are taking part in the Floresta Digital (Digital Forest) project beingdeveloped by DW Akademie and its partner Saúde e Alegria. Everyone recently met up at the Floresta Ativa Experimental Center to launch the project. "It won't just help us to develop technology-wise," says Campos, "but to understand the possibilities we have as riverine farmers."  

Floresta Digital aims to improve the Internet connection among these communities and create a digital platform where they can present their local production and handicraft initiatives. This way, they can support their economy while also protecting the Amazon. 

More than just Internet access 

The project will give communities an Internet connection via local devices linked to the signal from low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites.  

Floresta Digital will also create access points managed collectivelyand based on the communities' interests and values. In contrast to huge social network platforms that manage services from giant data centers far from user populations, Floresta Digital aims for content and services to be hosted locally. 

This will not only give locals greater autonomy in managing their data but guarantee they can use the network if their own Internet connection fails. 

The project's concept of "meaningful connectivity" also has the goal to improve people's quality of life. "Floresta Digital aims to train communities in topics that link technology with their socio-environmental reality," says Fábio Pena, coordinator of Saúde e Alegria's Education, Culture and Communication Program.  

"We want to facilitate the social, cultural and economic uses of technology, based on the potential of the various communities," he says, adding "We want to truly achieve digital inclusion." 

Transforming through inclusion 

For this, the project is collaborating with the collective Casa Preta Amazônia. "Our role will be to showcase free software technologies so that communities can see how useful they are," explains collective member Aline Vieira. "They’ll also be able to show the world that the rainforest can be kept alive through their communities’ economic activities." 

Community members in the project will also receive technological and administrative training from DW Akademie and Saúde e Alegria so that they can manage the network themselves.

In all, this connectivity will benefit even those facing the greatest difficulties, such as women like Izabela Campos who play a key role in local production but who have little online access or Internet skills.  

"The challenge will be to mobilize women and make them aware that this field belongs to them, as well," says Isis Tatiane, a participant from the Afro-descendant Quilombo do Curiaú community, promoting local culture and strengthening women's entrepreneurial work. "In any field where women are trained," Tatiane stresses, "they can raise their voices and bring about change."    

The initial Floresta Digital meeting was also attended by three local organizations which are part of the project's advisory board: the National Council of Extractive Populations (CNS), the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB) and the National Coordination of Articulation of Black Quilombola Rural Communities (CONAQ). 

The three-year project, coordinated by DW Akademie in partnership with Saúde e Alegria, aims to improve connectivity in the selected communities, with a focus on their socio-productive initiatives. The project is funded by the European Union.