As communities learn and share different lessons, the potential for transferring technology and improving production methods grows throughout different regions of the world. A further lesson from the Extractive Reserves experience is that a few small-scale, local initiatives cannot address regional deforestation, much less the many problems with prevailing forest policy around the world. Yet, they are valuable, as starting points for new policy proposals. The key point is that they build on and support local systems that recognize the value of diverse forest resources. Extractive Reserves cover only about 1 percent of the Brazilian Amazon, so obviously additional steps must be taken to develop strategies that increase the value of the forest as forest, independent of the pattern of land ownership.
Precedents exist, and various proposals have been presented.
Needed now is institutional change at the national and international levels to carry out the new proposals. Visit our lists of links for Forest Resources and Biodiversity . Ministerio do Meio Ambiente e da Amazonia Legal.