Since the early 1990’s, Brazil has become an open-air laboratory of sustainable development. It has engaged in implementing, in solo attempts or through international cooperation, to implement territorial polices that jointly integrate social, environmental and economical questions. Among the high number of experiments carried out [such as different scales zonings, ecological corridors, areas of integrated preservation,…], the local projects of sustainable development have received particular interest because they are supposed to change the face of the Amazon if taken together as a sum of integrated initiatives. By having an influence on the individual behaviour and by offering appropriate models of socio-economic development to the local populations, those projects hoped to catch up the deficits of the region’s development, at the same time avoiding higher pressures on its ecosystems. This thesis aims to evaluate the territorial changes linked to the execution of these different programs of sustainable development through an indicators system : IDURAMAZ. The latter was tested in eight communities in order to measure the progresses accomplished in : [i] quality of life ; [ii] environmental protection ; [iii] link between the present needs and the future perspectives ; [iv] social organisation. The methodological and conceptual principles that have guided the creation of this system that contains 44 sub-indicators are detailed in the discussion. On top of the results obtained in each of the eight communities, some elements are presented on the discussion on how to render IDURAMAZ more efficient in the future.
