Selected from among 201 applicants, 15 initiatives will participate in the Program in 2020 and are already competing for investments of up to R$ 800 thousand during a business roundtable in December this year
Academia Amazônia Teach, Cacauway, Coex Carajás, CODAEMJ, Instituto Ouro Verde, ManejeBem, Na Floresta, NavegAM, Nossa Fruits, Oka, ONF Brasil, Prátika Engenharia, Sierras Guerreiras de Tapuruquara, Taberna da Amazônia and Tucum are the selected impact businesses to participate in the Partners for the Amazon Platform Acceleration Program in 2020.
Of the 15 selected, six are located in the state of Amazonas, four in Pará, two in Mato Grosso, two in Rio de Janeiro and one in Santa Catarina. For the first time, Call for Business opened the possibility of registration for companies headquartered in other regions of the country, as long as they are willing to open an address in the North region within six months after the beginning of the Program.
The initiatives are connected with 14 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the 2030 Agenda. The selected businesses bring solutions in: sustainable agriculture and livestock, forest management and production, environmental products and services, education for the conservation of the environment, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, among others.
“In addition to the increase in the number of registered businesses, the diversity and quality of the businesses drew attention in this second edition of the PPA Call. The 201 applicants came from 15 Brazilian states, which shows how impact entrepreneurs have their eyes on the Amazon at this time. Most applicants are still concentrated in the states of Pará and Amazonas, but we had proposals from all five macro-regions of the country”, assesses Mariano Cenamo, Director of New Businesses at the Institute for Conservation and Sustainable Development of the Amazon (Idesam) and Executive Coordinator of PPA.
For Cenamo, the quantity, diversity and quality of the businesses registered are factors that demonstrate that the PPA Acceleration Program, still in its second edition, already stands out as a reference in the region. “It was difficult to reach the 15 finalists, but we are sure that innovative solutions will emerge from this project for the Amazon's most pressing socio-environmental problems. Many high-quality and potential businesses were enrolled, demonstrating their great interest in participating in the Program. I believe that our great differential is being an Amazon program for the Amazon, that is, customized according to the needs here and co-created with an extensive network of partners and with the first accelerated group in 2019.”
The connection that was created between the participating entrepreneurs is one of the highlights of the initiative. In addition to perceiving themselves as part of a network, they exchange experiences and test business possibilities with each other, enhancing Amazonian culture and its socio-biodiversity assets. The expectation is that this group will join the new group that starts the Program in 2020, and that this network will grow and strengthen each year.
“We believe in strengthening the Amazon region's economy by supporting businesses with impactful solutions based on sustainability. The PPA Acceleration Program is an excellent opportunity to strengthen innovative initiatives that generate income and value biodiversity. These are businesses with inclusive and fair practices, which preserve the environment and increase the economic development of the entire region,” says Márcia Côrtes, sustainability manager at the Humanize Institute.
In addition to being part of the Acceleration Program in 2020, the selected businesses will participate in a business roundtable with investors in December this year, seeking financial contributions for the specific demands of their initiatives, with the possibility of obtaining up to R$ 800 thousand per business.
“The Acceleration Program is an important model for the Amazon, because it is preparing entrepreneurs and social businesses to have sustainable growth and, at the same time, produce results involving communities and preserving the forest. If we want models that replace an economy of illegality or not sustainable, we need to support businesses, startups, ideas that move in this direction. And this program is doing that”, assesses Ted Gehr, director of USAID Brazil, a strategic partner of PPA.
The 2019 PPA Business Call was carried out by the Partners for the Amazon Platform, coordinated by Idesam, strategic partnership and financial support from USAID, CIAT, Instituto Humanize and Fundo Vale. It had a partnership with Pipe Social, Amazon Entrepreneurship Center, Centro de Vida Institute (ICV), CERTI Foundation, Amazon Network Foundation, FIIMP, Sitawi, ICE, NESsT and Conexsus and support from the following companies and organizations: Natura, Peabiru Institute , Amazon Conservation Team (Ecam) Bemol, DD&L, Whirpool Cervejaria Ambev, Beraca, Agropalma, Abrapalma, Althelia and Grupo Rede Amazônica.
Get to know the selected businesses
> Academia Amazon Teaches (Manaus, AM)
Created in September 2018 with founder João Tezza's idea of preparing undergraduate and graduate students for new skills for the future, Academia Amazônia has the Amazon rainforest as its background and main focus. It offers courses, which have an average of 15 students per class, to disseminate and discuss sustainability, technology, environmental conservation and economic development, with expeditions to the forest, in which students participate in sensory experiences and commit to developing projects for development sustainable development in the region. The main audience is in universities, training centers and entrepreneurs at different levels.
> Cacauway (Medicilândia, PA)
Cacauway is an initiative of the Transamazônica Agroindustrial Cooperative (COOPATRANS), formed by a group of cocoa producers from Medicilândia, breaking the paradigm of being raw material suppliers (among the industries in the region, it is the only one led by a cooperative). Its mission is to produce, industrialize and market cocoa and chocolate with high quality standards, adding value and sustainability to the production chain, providing greater income generation to members. It already offers more than 40 products in its stores, including chocolate bars, truffles, cocoa powder, nibs, cocoa beans, jellies, etc. According to the entrepreneurs, the differential of their products lies in the reduced use of butters or additives in the composition of the chocolate, in addition to the work/monitoring of the production, harvest and post-harvest of cocoa, which generates superior quality almonds.
> CODAEMJ (Carauari, AM)
The Middle Juruá Agroextractive Development and Energy Cooperative (CODAEMJ) was founded in 2003 and has as its objective the commercialization and agroextractivist production of the Middle Juruá, ensuring income generation for community members through sustainable practices and contributing to the strengthening of region. The cooperative produces, sells and delivers andiroba, murumuru and ucuuba seed oils to the cosmetics industry. It already reaches 64 rural communities in Carauari, involving more than two thousand people and 370 families, with women 70% of the cooperative members. Indirectly, in partnership with other institutions, it works with 645 families and more than four thousand people. CODAEMJ also has a partnership with the association of women/mothers in the middle Juruá to support the work of 7 institutions in the middle Juruá that work in the community, developing derivative products for cosmetic use and cleaning.
> COEX Carajas (Parauapebas, PA)
The Flona de Carajás Extractivist Cooperative (COEX Carajás) was created in 2011 under the name Cooperativa Jaborandi, becoming COEX Carajás in 2011. It operates in the Carajás National Forest. It has 39 members and its mission is to generate income through the sustainable extraction of jaborandi leaves, raw material for the formulation of pharmaceutical products, and the sale of seeds of other species, an activity that has already helped in the recovery of more than a thousand hectares of forest.
> manage well (Florianópolis, SC)
Founded in 2016, ManejeBem is a company that offers intelligence and solutions for the development of agriculture through a platform (application) for collecting data and diagnoses, aiming to optimize technical resources and improve productivity in a sustainable manner. Provides support in the certification process, management techniques, production scale and use of sustainable techniques. Currently, ManejeBem runs a pilot in the state of Maranhão, with 75 family producers, and intends to expand and consolidate its operations in the Amazon. It also has a website with more than five thousand people registered, having provided more than 20 thousand hours of remote technical assistance. Provides services for European and American agricultural data sharing and analysis platforms.
> In the Amazon Food Forest (Manaus, AM)
Company created in 2003, its main product is Chocolate Na'kau, produced since 2017 with Amazonian cocoa purchased from agro-extractivist riverside communities. It was born from the concern to conserve the Amazon forest through the supply of ethical and wholesome food, including the Amazon peoples. Today it works with eight families of cocoa producers and another 24 indirectly impacted. The producers are located on the Madeira and Amazon rivers, being a conservation unit and an agrarian reform settlement, in the municipalities of Manicoré, Nova Olinda, Novo Aripuanã and Borba.
> browse (Manaus, AM)
Startup of technology founded in 2018, it promotes online ticket sales and river freight transport and a road and river logistic follow-up service in the Amazon. Its online platform also allows the management of services and financial operations of local transporters/customers, data and logistical information such as number of people, prices, sales per branch, etc. Currently, NavegAM consists of an internal module for vessels, managing ticket sales information, and an application to sell these tickets, both on the vessel itself and at the agencies that offer these tickets. The company's proposal is to reduce costs and democratize the transport of passengers and cargo in the Amazon, thus enabling strategic value chains for forest conservation.
> Our Fruits (Corralinho, PA)
Founded five years ago and located in Paris, France, it focuses on the challenges faced by the açaí production chain in the Amazon. It sells Brazilian açaí in Europe, being the leader in that market. It is currently facing difficulties in developing and structuring its supply chain to guarantee 100% of raw material of organic origin and produced by communities in a sustainable manner and with fair trade relations. Thus, the company intends to build a processing plant to intensify good relations with producing communities, and thus have a closer control of the origin of its products. The factory project involves partnerships with a local cooperative – Sementes do Marajó – providing an increase in the price paid to producers, financing of social projects through a community fund, job security, among other things.
> OK (Ananindeua, PA)
OKA Juice is a food company founded in 2018, whose mission is to be a national and international reference in food production associated with the preservation of the Amazon Forest. It was born as an option on an industrial scale for offering juices with native Amazonian fruits for the national and international market, and aims to verticalize the primary production of regional fruits. It produces juices and fruit nectars native to the region, such as açaí, bacuri, cupuaçu, etc. using demerara sugar. The entire production cycle is designed in a sustainable way so that it generates a minimum of waste and negative environmental impacts. In addition to this production, the company also aims to supply the chain from one end to the other, from the production of inputs, training of suppliers, recovery of the forest area, use of bottle and label suppliers in the region, to the reverse logistics of packaging.
> Engineering Practice (Manaus, AM)
Founded in 2018, Pratika Engenharia is a for-profit organization whose mission is to reduce the environmental impacts of solar panels for the production of electricity in indigenous communities and isolated quilombolas in the northern channel of the state of Pará. The diesel generator is one of the main alternatives used in places without access to distributed energy, and the Practice offers affordable sale and installation of traditional solar panels for the production of electricity in isolated communities in the Amazon as a way to replace diesel-powered generators, reducing costs, providing clean and renewable energy and mitigating the negative environmental impact of using diesel oil.
> tucum (Rio de Janeiro - RJ)
Founded in 2012, the organization's mission is to value and promote the art of indigenous and traditional populations in Brazil, generating income for their communities. Tucum does this through commercial partnerships with associations, cooperatives, producer groups or artists, guided by ethics, legality, sustainability, respect for local realities and economically balanced relationships. It is recognized by the Origens Brasil seal and currently has 2,500 artisans in 31 indigenous lands and/or protected areas, representing 54 ethnic groups. The development of the handicraft production chain promotes sustainable income generation, appreciation of culture, empowerment of women and circulation throughout the territory, being a counterpoint to the involvement in mining and wood activities.
> Instituto Ouro Verde (High Forest, MT)
The Institute is a non-governmental organization founded in 1999 with a focus on social participation as a basis for sustainable development. It has been operating in Mato Grosso since 2004, and was created with the aim of helping small family farmers, creating an association-style network, reinforcing sustainable production practices and boosting income generation. Today it operates in eight municipalities and facilitates farmers' access to resources for the restoration of degraded areas and the agroecological transition of food production systems, bringing consumers and family producers closer together, on three fronts: solidary credit system, restoration of Permanent Preservation Areas ( APPs) and new sales channels. It works with 1,200 families of small farmers, having supported the planting of 2,700 hectares of agroforestry systems, 190 microcredit projects and the sale of approximately R$ 2 million products annually.
> ONF Brazil Fazenda São Nicolau (Cotriguaçu, MT)
After the Kyoto Treaty, in 1998, through the support of the Peugeot company to the French state company ONF (National Forest Service), a reforestation project of a deforested area of 2,000 hectares in the Amazon Forest in Mato Grosso was initiated. a pilot, which has been applied for 20 years at the São Nicolau farm, in the northwest of the state. Small producers, public managers, students and teachers from public schools and universities, among others, benefit from current activities. The initiative offers carbon credits from the reforestation area, in addition to products from the integration of agriculture, livestock and forestry such as cattle, coffee, cocoa, annatto, Brazil nuts, teak wood and native trees of sustainable management, ecotourism and forest seedlings and fruitful. The current challenge is to transform the project into a business, with economic sustainability and potential for replicability in the surrounding communities, which can serve as a reference for other rural properties in the Amazon.
> Amazon tavern (Rio de Janeiro - RJ)
Founded in 2015, Taberna da Amazônia works to create shorter links in the production chain and more direct links between small producers in the North and consumers in the Southeast, directly or through participation in food fairs. It aims to create a trusted network that empowers and supports the sustainable development of local initiatives. It offers 65 products, including nuts, biscuits, sweets, fruit pulp, chocolates, coffee, cheese, etc., from the Amazon region. It works with 20 small producers in the states of Amazonas and Pará. It is currently also focused on better developing its business plan and reactivating an online platform with a subscription plan, in addition to developing business impact indicators.
> Tapuruquara Warriors Mountains (Santa Isabel do Rio Negro, AM)
Experience tourism enterprise founded in 2017, which operates in 13 indigenous communities in the region of the municipality of Santa Isabel do Rio Negro, northern Amazonas. The Association of Indigenous and Riparian Communities (ACIR) is the protagonist of the project's management and leads the operation with the help of the Garupa institution, a partner that operates the excursions. Its objective is to promote an economic activity in the region that develops indigenous community-based tourism and encourages the maintenance of community spaces, their culture, the production of their food and handicrafts and the awareness of those who visit the communities, generating income . It offers two itineraries that contemplate Amazon practices and experiences guided by the peoples of the Médio Rio Negro I and Médio Rio Negro II Indigenous Lands. The next steps include preparing to have its own transport infrastructure, implementing an ecological sanitation system and training in management for indigenous youth.
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