The World Social Forum could be held in South America's Amazon region if the candidacy of the northern Brazilian city of Belém to host the massive civil society event is successful. The proposal is included in a document addressed to the WSF International Council, set to meet in June in Berlin to choose the site of the 2009 event.

“We want Belém to be the point of convergence of the nine Amazonian countries,” Adilson Vieira, secretary of the Amazonian Working Group, a network of 623 organizations and social movements, told Tierramérica.

Its geographical location and its role in the global climate, as well as its great biological and social diversity make the Amazon an ideal place for the Forum, says Salete Camba, representative of the Paulo Freire Institute in the WSF Council.