MAPITHE
Ecovillage Céu do Mapiá, where IDARIS preferentially hosts its projects, is located near the border between the states of Amazonas and Acre, in the Purus National Forest (Flona), in the Brazilian Amazon. Founded in 1983 by rubber tapper, farmer, great connoisseur of the forest and spiritual leader Sebastião Mota de Melo, the intentional spiritualist community emerged with the objective of being a place of human and spiritual development. Padrinho Sebastião's dream was to form a community for a new era, a new way of life, fair, in harmony and unity, far from cities and nourished by the forest, with the primary objective of seeking a harmonized relationship between human beings and themselves. , with their peers and with all of Nature.
In 1988, the Federal Government created, superimposed on the settlement of the community, the Purus National Forest, a Sustainable Use Conservation Unit, a territory covering 256,000 hectares of primary forest with little alteration. The Purus Flona is part of the National System of Conservation Units, playing its role in the protection of biodiversity, as part of the set of Conservation Units in the country, and in promoting the sustainable use of natural resources.
Under the inspiration of Padrinho Sebastião, today Céu do Mapiá, the world capital of Santo Daime, gathers around 600 people, including adults and children. The population is made up not only of people from the region, but also of residents from large cities in Brazil and around the world, forming an especially fruitful cultural mix, which brings together people and talents unified around ideas and practices of sustainability.
Currently, under the leadership of his son and General Secretary of IDARIS, Alfredo Gregório de Melo, and his widow Rita Gregório (affectionately called Madrinha Rita), the community develops experimental alternatives and solutions to the current global environmental, cultural and socioeconomic crisis. Due to its geographic isolation and its profile, Vila Céu do Mapiá demands and favors the development of a resilient occupation model in the Brazilian Amazon.
