Peabiru s Profile May General context

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Felix Reynolds
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1 Travessa Ó de Almeida, Reduto Belém Pará Brazil F peabiru@peabiru.org.br Peabiru s Profile May General context The Amazon is under growing destruction by poverty issues. Over 90% of the people in the region are considered poor, living under US$ 4/day. Cattle raising and commodity production have arisen as major drivers for impoverishment and devastation of the Amazon forest. New cattle pastures producing beef for internal markets - have already devastated 60 million hectares, at the same time more than 1 million hectares of soybean have been planted to feed livestock in Europe and Asia. Presently, deforestation and burning of Amazon tropical forests still accounts for 1/10 of global warming. Although public awareness keeps high, in reality few Corporate Social Responsibility companies are addressing poverty and environmental issues, even more when considered their role to the Amazon region. 2. What is Peabiru doing? The Peabiru Institute is a registered Brazilian nonprofit organization (OSCIP) established in Belém, Pará, created in We have a team of 24 professionals with offices in Belém, Curuçá and São Paulo. The mission of Peabiru is to generate value for the conservation of the biological and social diversity of the Amazon. Peabiru vision is of an Amazon is valued and respected for its contribution to the sustainability of the Planet in terms of environmental, social and cultural diversity. To achieve this vision Peabiru will work with civil society organization, community organizations, private sector and governments. 3. Approach Peabiru uses a participatory approach and livelihood framework (Research & action methodologies). Peabiru works with corporations to address sustainability issues within companies stakeholders. In addition, Peabiru adopts the concept of pro-poor value chain development. The aim is to empower socio-economically excluded groups to develop community based business strategies. One of the main strategies is the marketing and sales of innovative products from the Amazon forest. 3. Public Peabiru works with excluded groups in urban and rural areas specially: Riverside settlers (ribeirinhos) traditional communities Women and youth Ethnic minorities (indigenous people and afro-descendants) 1

4. Geographic focus Our priority is for the Amazon River Estuary, both in the side of Pará state where 2/3 of the Amazon forest has been deforested, and in the Amapá state.

2 4. Geographic focus Our priority is for the Amazon River Estuary, both in the side of Pará state where 2/3 of the Amazon forest has been deforested, and in the Amapá state. The region was chosen because of its past 40 years of continued deforestation, population growth and land occupation, with more than 1.2 million local families pushed to live under impoverished conditions. 5. Programs Peabiru is organized under three programs: A - Sustainability School Developing local human capacity through training programs, land planning and social inclusion Training: - Amazonian citizenship; Environmental awareness; Environmental monitors; Community based ecotourism; Capacity building; Entrepreneurial skills; Appropriate technology; Agenda 21 programs; Crosscutting issues: - Gender; Citizenship rights Land studies and planning: - Master plans; Management plans; Sustainable business development; NGO Capacity Building Organizational Development 2

3 Strategic Planning; Fund raising; Management for NGOs; Organizational development; Organizations economic sustainability; Fund raising; Management. B - Inclusive Business Connecting communities with business - Development of community based business: Wild Honey and Food Forest Program Ecotourism Program Mangrove Management Program - Community based brand incubation business; - Market access connecting communities to markets. C Corporate Social Responsibility - Helping corporations to set up and run their Corporate Social Responsibility programs, - Development of environmental and social indicators for companies development of indicators system to allow companies and communities to measure environmental & social impact, including GRI Global Reporting Initiatives among other indicators. Specially on: Palm Oil plantations (with Agropalma) and Açai Extractivism (with Sambazon) D Conservation Units Sustainability - Helping Companies, NGO and environmental authorities to study and achieve financial sustainability; - Demonstrative units dedicated to Conservation Units buffer zones. 6. Some cases of our recent work A Sustainability School - Casa da Virada Program, in partnership with the local fishermen s association and the Goeldi Museum, financed by Petrobras, Curuçá, , designed to train local environmental agents, to prepare bioindicators for mangroves and to implement Agenda 21 in the municipality - Juruti Sustainability School: training local stakeholders in Juruti, Pará, financed by Alcoa, Alcoa Foundation 2009 onwards; - Capacity Building Support to NGOs: Peabiru gives consulting to local NGOs in order they can become finantially sustainable. 20 NGOs were supported in the last 4 years, financed by AVINA, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Conservation International and Natura. - Sustainability Indicators for NGOs, financed by AVINA Foundation, ; B- Inclusive Business - Wild Bee Program: Honey from indigenous bees for 350 families, Curuçá, Pará and Macapá, Amapá, in partnership with Royal Tropical Institute, and 3

4 CCADA Conselho das Comunidades Afro-descendentes do Amapá, financed by Abn Amro Foundation, , Dutch Embassy ; - Community Based Ecotourism Program: implementation of ecotourism in Curuçá (financed by Petrobras Ambiental). A second phase financed by the Ministry of Tourism is on the verge to start. C Corporate Social Responsibility - Sustainable Palm Oil Program a joint program with Agropalma, in order to look at local the company stakeholders and its neighboring areas. A diagnosis on social conditions was done in 2007/2008 and field initiatives are being implemented, ongoing; - Sustainable Açaí Program a joint program with Sambazon, with the support of The Nature Conservancy in order to track changes in the Extractivism activities. A first set of research - Bio-social indicators for the natural producing region of açaí palm fruit in the Amazon River estuary were done in 2007/2008, in partnership with Goeldi Museum, Federal University of Amapá and others, financed by Sambazon and The Nature Conservancy, ongoing; - Petrobras De Olho No Ambiente, Agenda 21 to five poor urban neighborhoods in Belém, as part of a major Petrobras initiative in 17 states of Brazil. Peabiru was chosen as the NGO to work with Petrobras in Pará state; - Support Natura Local Programs: Peabiru helped Natura Cosmetics in two initiatives: a - helping the local Ver o Peso market herbalist s association, Ver- As-Ervas, on their planning, structuring, finding a headquarter, establishing their visual identity and planning income generation initiatives., ; b- Peabiru also made an evaluation of three rural communities producers of priprioca (Ciperacea family) to Natura Cosmetics, Belém region, 2005;c Peabiru worked with Boa Vista do Acará rural association to design 3 integrated Business plans, D Conservation Units Sustainability - Floresta Nacional do Amapá (Amapá National Forest) Social program Conservation International is supporting IBAMA, the National Environmental Authority to find ways to attract 150 gold miners to leave the conservation unit and become local producers in a sustainable way, 2008 ongoing; - Imigrantes Environmental Park design and planning, Kunito Myiasaka Foundation, ongoing; 4

5 7. Partners The Peabiru Institute receives 2/3 of its donations from private corporations (Alcoa, Albras (Vale), Petrobras, Sambazon) and 1/3 from Foundations/NGOs (Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, AVINA and Konrad Adenauer Foundation - KAS). Among partners are Goeldi Museum, Federal University of Pará and Federal University of Amapá, IEPA Amapá among scientific organizations and innumerous NGOs in the Amazon region. 8. Contact João Meirelles Filho - General Director -jmeirelles@peabiru.org.br Rui Martins Administrative & Finance Director ruimartins@peabiru.org.br Gilberto Meirelles Business Director Gilberto@peabiru.org.br Instituto Peabiru - tel Travessa Ó de Almeida, 1083, Belém, Pará, Brazil cep

Instituto Peabiru Profile - July 2014

Instituto Peabiru Profile - July 2014 1. Introduction Instituto Peabiru s mission is to facilitate processes that strengthen community-based organizations and maintain social and biodiversity so that agro-extractivist