Participants and organizers of the RECABAAM modeling workshop.

Last year, CSF attended several workshops for inter-institutional collaboration to promote the strengthening of socio-biodiversity businesses and value chains in the Brazilian Amazon region. As a result, CSF is currently analyzing the economic feasibility of the implementation of the Agroextractivist Cooperatives and Associations Network of the state of Amazonas (Portuguese acronym, RECABAAM). This network focuses on strengthening the Brazil nut value chain in Amazonas state.

Together with the Vitória Amazônia Foundation (FVA), the Chico Mendes Biodiversity Conservation Institute (ICMBio), the Brazilian International Institute of Education (IEB), the Native Amazon Operation (OPAN) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), CSF organized this network's modeling workshop which took place April 24-25 in Manicoré, in southern Amazonas.

Participants in working groups.

Nineteen participants were present, representing the Beruri Farmers Association (ASSOAB), the Nut Producers and Processors of the Municipality of Amaturá Association (APROCAM), the Processors of Agroextractive Products of Amaturá Cooperative (COOPEBAM), the Mixed Agroextractive Sardinha Cooperative (COOPMAS), the Mixed Agroextractivist Cooperative of Unini river (COOMARU), the Green Cooperative of Manicoré (COVEMA), the Institute for the Sustainable Agricultural and Forestal Development of the state of Amazonas (IDAM), the Secretary of State for Rural Production of the Amazonas (SEPROR), and the Syndicate and Organization of the Cooperatives of the state of Amazonas (OCB/AM).

Participants in working groups.

The workshop's objective was to identify the expectations and agreements about the RECABAAM's business model to subsidize its planning process and feasibility study. In order to do so, the following information has been collected: the network's identity; the structure and priority actions; the possible socioeconomic benefits and risks for the extractivist organizations being part of the network; and the available resources for the initiative's implementation and maintenance in medium and long term.

The project's next steps are to elaborate on this network's feasibility analysis and to present the results in a workshop for the cooperatives and institutions.

This study is being developed in partnership with the FVA, OPAN and IEB and supported by the ICMBio, the National Indigenous Foundation (FUNAI), USFS and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in relation to the project Partnership for the Biodiversity Conservation in the Amazon: Sustainable Value Chains.

For more information about the feasibility study, please click here.

Photo credit: Fernanda Alvarenga.