THIS ARTICLE examines the discussion generated by the proposal to create the International Institute of the Hylean Amazon (IIHA), sponsored by Unesco in the late 1940s. It is especially focused on the ways in which the proposal was received and appropriated both in several forums linked to Unesco and in Brazil. This process was marked by both continuity and change. Despite the fact that there were similarities between the projects of the IIHA and the National Amazon Research Institute (Inpa), in terms of their research agendas, global interest in the Amazon region was since then limited by the intervention and political control of the Brazilian state and by the interests of the local scientific community, under the aegis of National Research Council (CNPq).
Amazon; Science; Technology; Research Institutions