OREANDA-NEWS. November 03, 2015. Roberto was a woodsman. His father was a woodsman. And his grandfather was a woodsman as well. And Roberto never imagined that cutting trees down in the Amazon Forest could be a problem. It was part of the family’s tradition and this was the only thing he knew how to do.

However, eight years ago, Roberto met someone who explained that cutting trees indiscriminately was putting the  future of his family, of his community, of the forest itself and of the whole planet at risk.

Creating a Sustainable Future for People of the Amazon

I met Roberto a year ago. He does not cut trees anymore. Today, he is a community leader in Tumbira, a community of 20 families that lives alongside the Negro river – part of the Amazon River basin. He also owns a sustainable hostel and manages a local bank branch – which is nothing more than a telephone line and a device for electronic payments linked to a bank network – and his eyes twinkle when he talks about projects he has seen in the Amazon in the past years.

Meeting with Roberto, leaders of the indigenous communities in the region, and  FAS – Amazonas Sustainable Foundation – is certainly one of those moments that make us feel an immense pride of being able to contribute and transform the world into a better place. And all of this is thanks to the SAP Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs. Since 2014, when the company started to support FAS projects with the donation of an analytics’ tool called SAP Lumira, I have seen how much work has been done to preserve and enhance the inhabitants’ lives in the forest and how this generates benefits to the people themselves and the entire environment.

Centralized Data for Real-Time Analysis from the Most Remote Villages

SAP donated SAP Lumira to FAS as part of a project led by the company´s CSR area. Conducted by three SAP professionals, representatives of 12 areas of FAS, and three specialists from partner Ramos Sistemas, the implementation was completed in four months. The experts have initially configured ten panels for cloud visualization of performance indicators for projects aimed at the education of youth, public health efforts and infrastructure development in the communities benefited by FAS.

Currently, FAS employees and managers fill in all the information about the communities and projects directly into SAP Lumira. In addition to the ten panels initially configured, managers can easily create new visualizations, establish indicators, metrics and data analysis features according to their particular needs.

“Today, we have access to centralized data which is available for real-time analysis, even when we’re talking about communities that are hours away from the nearest urban center and only accessible by boat,” said Virgílio Viana, superintendent at FAS. “We were also able to identify more efficient solutions for the improvement of indicators such as income generation, health and education,” he added, remembering that there are communities that can only be reached after several weeks of a boat trip leaving from Manaus, the capital of the Amazonas State.

Partnership for a Better Future

I have worked in the IT industry for over 15 years and I confess that nothing gives me more pleasure than seeing how the use of new technologies can really transform people’s lives. With this partnership with FAS, I live fully this feeling. As Robert says, his life dramatically changed for the better once he realized that the forest is worth much more when it is standing up, rather than down. This change in his life and in the lives of other 40 thousand people benefited by FAS gives me the confidence that I am working on something that is really worth. And this is just the beginning.