Fostering and promoting solutions for sustainable development has a strategic status for Amazon. It is not by chance that the encouragement of projects that complement this issue have become the work axis of many organizations. However, an individual performance of an institution increasingly comes from private sector networks, civil society entities and State authorities, which plays a leading role in particular actions at the time and in the implementation that are particular to new perspectives for the region.
This is what is called multistakeholder arrangements or multisectoral governance. It is a form of management with a center of attention on solving problems, having as focus the identification and implementation of actions shared by the actors affected or capable of influencing (stakeholders) the course of an issue. One of the principles that guides multisectorialism is precisely the collective commitment with a determined cause, in which impacts the democratic debate and the consensual search for forms of action.
In this sense, promoting development initiatives has become a strategic issue for many networks. The Vale Fund has been working for 12 years in the field of promotion to structuring projects and impact businesses that focus on sustainability components in their economical, social and environmental aspects, especially in regions under strong pressure, such as the Amazon. that could be applied to the management of the enterprise, in the market, in marketing, as well as in favor of social and human capital and knowledge production.
We believe that a fairer and more sustainable economy is a structuring issue for a more sustainable Amazon. Offering a less predatory income alternative helps protect the forest, recover degraded areas and improve people's lives. Therefore, we have focused on this economic component in our initiatives, as a lever for social progress and environmental conservation, she says.
Since 2010, Vale Fund has supported 90 projects and 236 businesses with a positive socio-environmental impact in different regions, but primarily in the Amazon, in addition to having invested more than BRL 212 million by 2021. Among the local initiatives benefited are: AMAZ Aceleradora de Impacto, a partnership with Idesam whose focus is investment in businesses that keep the forest standing; the Amazon Journey, developed by the Certi Foundation, with the aim of boosting the ecosystem of innovation and businesses with a positive impact on the Amazon; and the CX Fund Emergency Credit Line, aimed at supporting cooperatives and family farming and extractivism associations affected by the covid-19 pandemic.
Vale Fund has also been working to encourage proposals aligned with the “Impact Carbon” concept, that is, businesses structured for the forest carbon credit market, a global trend in which Amazon can play a leading role. “The Amazon plays a very important role in this context, both because of its continuum of forest and biodiversity, as well as the areas
that are already deforested, but can be recovered. But to make more sense, we need to involve and benefit the 38 million inhabitants who live there, especially those who help keep the forest standing”, points out Patrícia Daros.
These and other projects have their implementation, execution and results carefully observed by management tools and impact measurement, with analysis of indicators and goals achieved. And in all of this, stands out the alignment with the common objectives that bring Vale Fund closer to other institutions. “We have participated in multistakeholder arrangements to understand who works with which themes in the biome, their points of view and with which we have synergy to build partnerships”, says the Director of Operations, stressing the importance of building projects in a participatory manner.
One of these multisectoral platforms is Parceiros pela Amazônia (PPA), a network organization that brings together 50 companies of various sizes, civil society organizations and international groups around the leverage of social and environmental investments to face the Amazonian challenges, in particular the related to the empowerment of forest populations and the conservation of biodiversity.
The first aims to strengthen the participation potential of those who already inhabit the territories, observing the guarantee of their rights and promoting opportunities for training, learning and inclusion. The second is intended to keep the resource reserve resilient, so that it can be used indefinitely and bring greater added value to the production of the forest, says Augusto Corrêa, executive secretary of the PPA.
The action strategy is based around thematic groups on entrepreneurship, bioeconomy, markets and territories. In these spaces, different actors of society participate to discuss and think about programs and projects for the Amazon. Today, there are 10 initiatives supported by the PPA in these areas, generating direct impacts for local development and for strengthening impact businesses.
“By joining efforts, knowledge and resources, it is possible to generate more resilient, long-term opportunities that are completely coherent with the needs of the territory. The PPA encourages the creation of partnerships as its main strategy, admitting that the sum is also capable of multiplying”, highlights Augusto Corrêa.
In the same sense, Renata Piazzon, director of Instituto Arapyaú and executive secretary of Concertação pela Amazônia, believes that it is with the union of efforts, sectors and resources that it is possible to create a disruptive model of development for the region, in which all its complexity with its different biomes, landscapes and modes of use and occupation of territories.
“There are numerous initiatives aimed at the territory, what was lacking was a great concertation, in the sense of orchestrating, harmonizing, creating a democratic space so that the dozens of initiatives in defense of the Amazon could meet, dialogue, increase the impact of their actions and generate new proposals and projects in favor of the forest and the populations that live in the region”, evaluates Renata Piazzon, punctuating the participation of more than 500 agents in this work, including representatives from academia, the private sector, business leaders, government, local communities, institutions philanthropies and civil society.
Aiming to give more visibility to the solutions discussed and implemented by the network, this year the Concertação pela Amazônia is preparing a set of proposals for the sustainable development of the region that will materialize in an agenda of actions that can be adopted by the elected representatives in the new administrations and legislatures. .
“The idea is to build an integrated development agenda for the region that considers the Amazon as a solution and looks at development beyond the environmental lens. With the document in hand after the results of the elections, Concertação will dialogue with the transition government for its implementation. These are feasible proposals, capable of being implemented in the first 100 days by the elected government”, says Piazzon.
Actions like this are in line with the Theory of Change from Vale Fund 2030, a document that guides the institution's actions in order to contribute to the promotion of new economic alternatives and conservation of the biome. Some goals include: fostering value chains for socio-environmental products and services, mitigating and adapting to climate change, increasing the carbon neutrality strategy, protecting and combating illegal deforestation and supporting the bioeconomy.
“In this document we declare that our priority territory for action is the Amazon, and we reinforce our mission to promote solutions with a positive socio-environmental impact that strengthen a sustainable, fair and inclusive economy”, concludes Patrícia Daros, clarifying that all the principles, impacts and expected results by Theory must be connected to the practice of the Fund and its partners.
