Around 100,000 activists, unionists, students, NGO members and pacifists have flooded the World Social Forum (WSF) taking place this year in Belem, north Brazil. Since 2001 the event has acted as an alternative to Davos, Switzerland, where, at the same time, the world's top economic and political decision makers sit down together.

On the Observers, we're following the three-day forum through the eyes of various participants.

Stéphane Le Borgne is president of Artisans du Monde, a fair trade produce distribution network who is participating in the WSF this year.

The forum is not only a place to launch big ideas, but also somewhere to share experiences. We're here with our partners from the Brazilian tribe Satere Mawe, from who we buy an energising oil from Guarana which we sell in France. The Satere Mawe people managed to save their land by diversifying their culture and uniting to resist the oil companies. We want to spread that initiative.

The forum is also an occasion to meet potential partners. For example, today [Thursday] we've discussed plans with a tribal group from Manaus [Brazil] who produce various kinds of fruits which they then use to make jam. It's an adapted lifestyle and it's an entirely self-sufficient production line.

Before the financial crisis, a lot of people said that the alter-globalisation movement was out of touch with the mainstream and wouldn't go anywhere. But today, the IMF is using some of our reports - about the too-virtual state of the economy, the lack of regulation etc. There's no denying that, today, fair trade producers are less affected by the crisis".