Sustainable Territories Platform: Building a Shared Public-Private Vision for the Low Emission Development in the Amazon

This case study aims to present the trajectory for the construction of the Sustainable Territories Platform, a pioneer initiative for ongoing subnational jurisdictional approaches. Led by the Pará Government, in partnership with civil society – the Nature Conservancy, the Tropical Forest Alliance and the Humanize Institute – it aims to promote multisector integration and connection to bring scale and effectiveness for a transition to a low-carbon socioeconomic development model in Pará, one of the most important jurisdictions both for the protection of tropical forests and for the world’s climate agenda. Aligned to the State Plan Amazon Now, as well as its implementing partners, the Sustainable Territories Platform represents the third and innovative phase in Pará’s journey towards a jurisdictional approach. This began with an intense focus on public sector actions but, after several years, and especially after the Paris Agreement of 2015, it has found more and more support from initiatives promoted by civil society organizations and the private sector.

The study will go through the broad concept of the jurisdictional approach in Pará from 2008 until the present day and showcase the main transition opportunities to a low-carbon production model and some multisector initiatives that testify to its socioeconomic viability which have inspired actions from the state’s public sector and the constitution of the Sustainable Territories Platform, as a hub of impact for the low-carbon economy in Amazon. By way of conclusion, this study shows the main steps undertaken to develop the Sustainable Territories Platform; its objectives, goals and criteria for partners’ integration; a map of initiatives with integrational potential to the Sustainable Territories Platform and the main lessons learnt and challenges for the success of this promising initiative.