CEOs of large companies deepen their visions of the region through close contact with local communities
Learning about the initiatives that combine preservation and production with the forest standing was one of the objectives of Immersion in the Amazon, organized by CEBDS with eight CEOs, at the end of August. The presidents of large companies operating in Brazil visited successful production experiences in the forest and spoke with entrepreneurs, researchers and the local community.
One of the most important concepts for business in the Amazon is that of the active forest. This is, for example, one of the pillars of the NGO Saúde e Alegria, which has been working in the interior of the Amazon since 1987, developing actions directly with local society. The infrastructure embedded in the so-called socio-productive units, set up by the NGO in strategic regions in the North of the country, ends up being decisive for the advancement of ventures related to the forest economy. A proposal that was highlighted in the itinerary prepared for the CEOs' immersion.
One of the visits took place in the Carão Community, in the Tapajós-Arapiuns Extractive Reserve (Resex), an area where more than 22,000 people live spread across 70 communities. Cefa (Centro Experimental Floresta Ativa) is the birthplace of the Floresta Ativa program, coordinated by Saúde e Alegria. What the executives saw there helped consolidate their vision throughout the trip that local communities are key players in any action that is intended to be taken in the region. “One of the ways we can promote the Amazon is also by showing the beauty of these communities. Whether through technical discussion groups or by listening to the people who live in the forest. They are the guardians of these forest assets, which have immense potential,” says Caetano Scannavino, coordinator of the NGO Projeto Saúde & Alegria.
In addition to the discussions, the businesspeople were able to learn about Cefa's modular structure, which integrates permaculture and agroecology units, and understand the diverse program of courses and training for the region's communities. In practice, it is a training and technology center where institutional and community events are held. Cefa is also a demonstration model of bioconstruction, with energy efficiency, use of daylight and natural ventilation, reuse of rainwater and adequate waste treatment. Thus, its facilities have a low environmental impact and value the knowledge of native peoples.
Since every practice needs to be based on theory – or rather, on a robust strategic plan for the Amazon, based on concrete analyses and realistic data on the dilemmas regarding the sustainable development of the region – there is nothing better than listening to experts. For this reason, several scholars were present at the immersion on how socio-environmentalism needs to advance, something that should only occur side by side with the private sector.
In this sense, in addition to bathing in the stream and eating local cuisine, the CEOs discussed the future of the region with intellectual references from the Amazon, such as Clarissa Gandour (coordinator of public policy evaluation, with a focus on conservation, at the Climate Policy Initiative Brazil), Paulo Barreto (researcher associated with the Amazon 2030 Project), Fernanda Stefani (economist and specialist in the development of sustainable Amazonian production chains through work focused on supply chains and logistics for the food, beverage and cosmetics industries), Valmir Ortega (executive director of Impacto Plus and founder of Belterra Agroflorestas), Raimundo Brito (president of the Abaetetuba Fruit Growers' Cooperative), Raphael Medeiros (executive director of the Amazon Entrepreneurship Center) and Francisco Costa (Federal University of Pará).
Clarissa, for example, one of the speakers, has a thesis that people from outside the Amazon tend to have a romantic view of the region and, for this reason, it is very important that this is discussed and dismantled. “In this view, the image of a magnificent and exuberant forest predominates, a remote and, in a certain way, surreal immensity. Even though the forest is indeed magnificent, it does not represent the entirety of the Amazon”, explains the expert in this column for the website Plenamata.
In her speech to the CEOs, the Amazon specialist demonstrated, with well-founded figures, how the thesis that it is not necessary to deforest even one more square meter of forest to increase production is absolutely valid. Between 2004 and 2012, for example, while deforestation rates fell from 27,772 square kilometers per year to 4,571 square kilometers, the GDP of agricultural and livestock production in the Amazon rose from R$20 billion to R$43.8 billion.
Another visit, amidst the debates about the future of the standing forest, took place in the Urucureá community, which is located at the mouth of the Arapiuns River, surrounded by the Amazon River. The site is part of the Lago Grande Agroextractive Settlement Project (PAE), where 80 families generate income from community-based tourism, the management of byproducts such as cassava, and handicrafts made from tucumã straw. The Lago Grande PAE also addresses one of the great dilemmas of the Amazon. The region is still fighting for a collective land title – as is the case in several other settlements in the Legal Amazon.
The entrepreneurs, some of whom are visiting the Amazon for the first time, also visited the community of Vila Anã, located in the Tapajós-Arapiuns Extractive Reserve (Resex), at the mouth of the Arapiuns River, three hours by boat or one hour by speedboat from Santarém. In addition to experiences such as fish farming and meliponiculture (stingless bees), there is also the development of actions aimed at sustainable tourism.
Many of the testimonies from the businesspeople who took part in the immersion were enriched by the final debate scheduled in the program, which also included the participation of Marina Grossi, president of CEBDS. Check out what the presidents of large companies want for the Amazon in the section “Listen to the voice of CEOs”, on the website of the Business Movement for the Amazon, CEBDS.
