The crisis and the need for social isolation brought about by the coronavirus hit hard the businesses that impact the Amazon and, consequently, the communities involved in its production chains. With the drop in sales, many of these entrepreneurs are in the process of reviewing schedules, planning and adapting to online commerce.
The Partners for the Amazon Platform's Acceleration and Impact Investment Program, together with supporters and partners, has been moving to strengthen accelerated businesses.
There are five fronts of the Program's Action Plan for this moment:
>> Increased sales and revenues, through partnerships that leverage online commerce, institutional purchases and campaigns;
>> Mentoring program and support network, seeking to qualify businesses in areas such as commercial strategy, crisis management, business structuring and personal development;
>> Investment review, with a more flexible loan payment schedule review of the resource use plan and financial remodeling for the coming months;
>> Support to logistics, offering distribution solutions, partnerships with transport and collective freight companies;
>> Emergency working capital fund, with contributions from R$ 10 thousand to R$ 20 thousand, as a donation or loan at zero interest.
"With the isolation caused by the pandemic, the Program reorganized itself and has as its main guide in these months to help businesses strengthen and be resilient, either by intermediating the flexibility of payments and loans, offering logistical solutions that facilitate distance selling, with partnerships extend the reach of their products and even offering capital to keep them running. The activities planned for the 2020 acceleration cycle continue, but adapted to this situation”, says Mariano Cenamo, coordinator of the Acceleration and Impact Investment Program at PPA.
“Small businesses and startups are at more risk during the pandemic, especially those early in its development. We understand that this moment is to support fast-paced businesses so that they can continue to generate a positive social and environmental impact, recover and continue their journey more quickly in the future. “, said Anna Toness, leader of the environment team at USAID, one of the program's funding organizations.
The 2020 class acceleration schedule also underwent adjustments, and face-to-face meetings previously scheduled for the first six months of 2020 were provisionally rescheduled for the second semester, depending on the future scenario. The schedule already provided for distance activities, and with the pandemic, the number of webinars increased in these months.
In June, distance mentoring begins, offered in a customized way, according to the needs of each business. The 17 volunteer mentors were selected from 106 applicants and will help entrepreneurs in areas such as finance, marketing, management, governance, product development, business modeling, commercial strategy, e-commerce, among others.
Also this month, businesses supported by the Program will be able to apply to access the resources of the working capital fund.
SITAWI Finanças do Bem, which in March promoted an investment round for five businesses with impact accelerated by the Program through its Collective Lending Platform, is supporting entrepreneurs to face this moment. With support from the Humanize Institute and USAID, it made a new long-term loan to the businesses that participated in the round. In practice, for borrowers, it is as if they had an extended grace period in the initial months of payment of the amount raised by the Platform.
SITAWI also supported the organizations with very close analysis and follow-up. For each one, he made a new financial projection, taking into account the current scenario, helped to identify the emergency issues that should be addressed and to seek solutions to them, advising on more strategic negotiations and decisions, such as the implementation of new sales channels , among other points. It also held virtual meetings with entrepreneurs and their partners to discuss issues related to the moment of crisis caused by the pandemic.
For the platform's investors, SITAWI was concerned to communicate with transparency about the consequences of the moment for businesses with an impact in the Amazon and its actions to support them.
“Each investor and PPA partner had to look to the resources they had at hand and do their best to support the impact businesses so they could stay steadfast in their mission. It was a very coordinated action between the actors and funders around the PPA, so that we could have a very quick response, that would meet the demands of the businesses and so that we could support them. SITAWI's concern has always been to support these businesses, strengthen them and create a credible financial instrument for the market and for people who believe in the Amazon impact business”, says Andrea Resende, impact investment manager at SITAWI.
Partnership with the Free Market
Mercado Livre, the largest e-commerce and financial technology platform in Latin America, joined the PPA to promote the online sale of Amazonian biodiversity products on its platform.
The initiative is part of the Free Market's sustainability strategy which, among other objectives, seeks to train and support the performance of enterprises that already promote positive social and environmental impacts, in addition to expanding the sale of sustainable products on the platform.
"We understand that e-commerce can be an alternative to the challenges of marketing and logistics in the region, and that encouraging these entrepreneurs contributes to income generation and forest conservation in the territory, in addition to supporting them in this delicate moment of pandemic”, says Laura Motta, Sustainability Manager at Mercado Livre.
“Amazon offers amazing products, which are unknown to most of the Brazilians. The great challenge of today is to move a new economy to the region through entrepreneurs and sustainable businesses, which generate income and quality of life for local communities and help to conserve the forest. At the In the current context, these ventures have lost access to markets and practically interrupted their activities - as they were not prepared to online commerce. Our biggest goal in partnership with Mercado Livre is open new sales channels and connect Brazilians a little more with the Amazon forest”, says Mariano Cenamo.
The forecast is that, by the end of the year, at least 20 projects will be part of the initiative and that more than a thousand families, from 60 local communities, will benefit from the action.
Business moves too
Some of the businesses also promote crowdfunding campaigns as a way to keep communities in the supply chain protected and generate income. It is the case of In the Forest/Na'Kau, which processes and sells genuinely Amazonian chocolates of different flavors, generating income and better quality of life for riverside families located on the Madeira and Amazon rivers. Artur Coimbra, founder of Na Floresta/Na'kau, says he is surprised by the society's adhesion to the campaign, which has already reached its first fundraising goal.
THE of the Tribu, an enterprise accelerated by the Program in 2019 that works with sustainable accessories in partnership with families in the Amazon region of Pará, also started a campaign: “The coronavirus pandemic brought weaknesses and challenges to the Pedra Branca community, as the sale of Da Tribu products in the market national stopped happening. We are committed to guaranteeing the entry of funds for the families of Cotijuba for the next three or four months, so that they can continue to live with quality of life and expand their dreams for better days”, says Tainah Fagundes, from Da Tribu.
THE Tucum Brazil, which sells products and handicrafts from the indigenous culture of various ethnicities and seeks to value and promote the art of the peoples of the forest through commercial relations based on legality and financial balance, has been working with e-commerce for some time and promoted progressive discounts to encourage consumption.
“We will continue making payments to these communities. We believe that keeping the forest economy active in some way – continuing to buy crafts and art from these peoples, even if they are unable to ship the orders – helps their economic sustainability in this period. We are paying everyone and we will keep orders. They will send them when possible. The moment is to turn the wheel and make this resource reach the tip,” says Amanda Santana, one of the founders of Tucum Brasil.
About the PPA Acceleration Program
O PPA Acceleration and Impact Investment Program stands out for being 100% dedicated to the entrepreneur who works in the Amazon, as well as to the demands and realities regional. It is led by a group of PPA companies, coordinated by the Idesam (Institute for Conservation and Sustainable Development of the Amazon) and has strategic and financial support from USAID (US Agency for International Development ), CIAT, Instituto Humanize and Fundo Vale. Considered the best acceleration program in the northern region of Brazil according to Anprotec, in two years of operation the Program has invested almost R$ 6 million in Amazonian businesses, bringing customized options adapted to different types of business, with a diversity of sources (private capital and philanthropic) and financial mechanisms.
About PPA
THE Partners for the Amazon Platform (PPA) is an expanding organic collective action platform, led by private sector companies whose objective is to develop and identify innovative solutions for the sustainable development and conservation of the Amazon's biodiversity, forests and natural resources. It operates through four thematic groups (GTs): (1) Entrepreneurship, sustainable business and impact investing; (2) Bioeconomics; (3) Amazon Value Chains; (4) Territorial Management, conservation and communities.
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