Buriti fruit harvest

“We’re here to value socio-biodiversity products and support sustainable livelihoods for indigenous peoples and communities, to help them preserve territories, landscapes and ways of life. This is the purpose of Cooperative Central do Cerrado,” explains executive secretary, Luis Carrazza.

The name of the cooperative can be loosely translated to “The Centre for the Brazilian Savanna”. Established in 2004, they sell products from over 40 community organizations in nine Brazilian states, across Cerrado, Caatinga and Amazonia biomes. These biodiversity-based products are sustainably sourced, and their sale contributes to environmental conservation and income generation for local communities. Through the sale of the products, the cooperative promotes social inclusion and the maintenance of ecosystem services, including the water cycle, climate regulation and conservation of the unique biodiversity of the Cerrado biome.

Luis Carraza is Central do Cerrado executive secretary/photo COPABASE

Central do Cerrado was officially formalized 13 years ago by a group of organizations supported by the Small Grants Programme in Brazil, known as the Promotion of Eco-Social Productive Landscapes (SGP/PPP-ECOS) in Portuguese. The cooperative brings together community organizations who develop productive activities based on the sustainable use of Cerrado and Caatinga biodiversity. The community organizations offer diverse products at a scale that is ideal for collective commercialization. The ultimate aim of the initiative is to generate and distribute income to communities, in addition to improving their quality of life.

One of these organizations is COPABASE, the Sustainable Family Agriculture Cooperative Based on Solidarity Economy, located in the northwest of Minas Gerais state, in Arinos city. COPABASE focuses on production, processing and commercial-level family farming, using wild-harvested Cerrado biodiversity products. The organization is based in a self-recognized territory called Grande Sertão Veredas.

Cerrado landscape/ photo ISPN

This cooperative covers over 10 cities within the territory, including more than 40 rural land reform settlement communities, as well as traditional communities. The goals of COPABASE align closely with those of the Central do Cerrado: together they work to support rural families through income generation, while also creating a territorial identity through the diversity of products they sell.

Central do Cerrado store and products/ photo ISPN

Dionete Figueiredo was raised in a traditional community of farmers, and has been a member of the organization since its inception. Currently, she is the executive coordinator and celebrates the partnership with Central do Cerrado, saying: “Our partnership continues to strengthen due to Central do Cerrado’s market structure, operations, and membership.”

Located about 1,140 miles from COPABASE is the Cooperative of Small Agro Producers of Lago do Junco, known as COPPALJI, in northern Maranhão state. This community enterprise is a member of Central do Cerrado, and specializes in babassu palm oil production and commercialization. Founded in 1991 and based in the cities of Lago do Junco, Lago dos Rodrigues and Bom Lugar, the main objective of COPPALJ is to guarantee quality of life for the babassu nut breakers with access to public housing, education and healthcare, in addition to guaranteeing a fair price for the sale of babassu nuts and products.

Babassu nut breakers is the name given to people, usually women, who harvest and break the nuts from the babassu palms to extract the raw material and produce oil. They are typically from communities in Brazil’s north and northeast region - located in Maranhão, Tocantins, Pará and Piauí states.

Babassu nut breakers harvest the babassu nuts/ photo ISPN

Ricardo Araújo, COPPALJ technical advisor, explains that what the cooperative seeks is economic, social and environmental equilibrium. “It's no use for the cooperative to make a profit if the environment is harmed. Social and environmental responsibility is a must.”

Presently, there are 230 babassu nut breakers associated with the cooperative within 45 different communities. Their work is collected in nine local establishments, known as “canteens”, where people can buy babassu nuts and other products, and where the babassu breakers can exchange their product for sanitary, domestic or food items available on site. Each canteen also acts as a space to facilitate dialogue and discussion on management, business operations and other related topics.

COPPALJ has also been working to strengthen the babassu management plans, considering the environmental impacts of the extractive activity. It’s necessary to conserve young palm trees and respect the different stages of the plant, says Ricardo. “We have developed a manual from the collective agreements we have for the sustainable use of babassu.”

Ricardo notes that for over a decade COPPALJ and Central do Cerrado have been working together to build and strengthen their relationship. “We have supported each other even before Central do Cerrado was formalized, and we are working to strengthen this partnership each and every day. Central do Cerrado has opened up a range of possibilities to us, like direct sales, participation in fairs and activities with renowned chefs.”

From COPABASE to COPPALJ, Central do Cerrado supports its members in their operations, marketing, developing value chains and commercialization of their products, which contributes to their financial sustainability.

COPABASE, Sustainable Family Agriculture Cooperative Based on Solidarity Economy, is a member of Central do Cerrado Coperative/ photo COPABASE

“We decided to set up a commercial center so that the organizations could benefit from a team structure and shared strategy, instead of each setting up their own way of working,” says Luis.

With a more sophisticated level of management in place, the organizations have been able to expand the commercialization of their products beyond their regions, reaching new markets in the country and abroad. The various community enterprises have been participating in meetings and fairs to promote the sale of their products since the early 2000s. At this point, SGP Brazil had already accumulated more than a decade of knowledge and support to community organizations. The Central do Cerrado was formalized as a legal entity in 2010, having been incubated and supported by SGP Brazil and the Institute for Society, Population and Nature (ISPN) since the early 2000’s.

Over the course of many years of work, a key lesson was that the Cooperative should use multiple marketing channels to guarantee financial sustainability. This includes direct sales to consumers, preparation of cocktails and snacks for marketing events, online sales, physical stores in Brasília, making use of resellers, emporiums and large retail markets, and selling raw materials for industry and export.

Baru is COPABASE main product (Photo: Raimundo Sampaio/Agência Cajuí)

Today, Central do Cerrado sells products from more than 40 community organizations in nine Brazilian states, namely Bahia, Maranhão, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Tocantins, Pará, Goiás and Piauí. Several strategies were successfully used to increase the viability of the business. These included virtual sales, both at the Central do Cerrado store and on the main online sales platforms, as well as access to supermarket chains and retail in general.

Notably, the cooperative entered into a partnership with the Carrefour supermarket group two years ago. Through this successful collaboration, the Central do Cerrado has a shelf of its own in all Carrefour stores across the Brazilian Federal District. Furthermore, the cooperative supplies baru nuts to over 40 stores, and varied products to 17 hypermarkets, in São Paulo.

Central do Cerrado team/ photo ISPN

About the GEF Small Grants Programme
The Small Grants Programme is a corporate programme of the Global Environment Facility implemented by the United Nations Development Programme. For the past 30 years, SGP has been providing financial and technical support to civil society and community-based organizations on innovative community-driven initiatives that address global environmental issues while improving local livelihoods.

This year marks the programme’s 30th anniversary, and since its inception in 1992, SGP has delivered over US$720 million to over 27,000 community-based projects, changing countless lives in 136 countries. SGP is currently active in 127 countries.

In Brazil, the SGP Country Programme is being implemented by the Institute Society, Population and Nature (ISPN) as the executing entity in partnership with the UNDP. In 1994, the Institute was selected to coordinate the Small Grants Programme in Brazil, where it became known as the Small Eco-Social Projects (Pequenos Projetos Ecossociais, in Portuguese). SGP Brazil has already supported more than 890 projects in the Cerrado, Caatinga and Amazon.

In 2019, SGP Brazil adopted an institutional strategy to promote productive eco-social landscapes through four key pillars: access to resources, political engagement, community activism and knowledge management.

* This article was written by Camila Araujo, ISPN communication advisor.

Cerrado landscape/ photo ISPN