This project was selected from those submitted to the Call-for-Submission for Sustainable Production Projects issued by the Amazon Fund

CONTEXT

The history of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, when analyzed by land categories (according to Inpe data released by MMA¹), shows that TIs and integral PAs are the land categories with the lowest rates of deforestation. It is, therefore, notorious the centrality of the protected areas, in particular the TIs, in the strategy to control deforestation. In order for TIs to remain vectors of forest preservation, it is strategic that they have a support structure that protects the integrity of these lands, reducing deforestation pressures in favor of the conservation of biodiversity and the climatic functions of their forest resources.

The Comissão Pró Índio do Acre (CPI-AC), responsible for the project, is a civil association created in 1979 that stands out for its performance in the formulation and promotion of state and national public policies related to indigenous peoples, especially with regard to the territorial and environmental management of TIs and intercultural and bilingual education. Since 1997, CPI-AC has maintained the Forest Peoples Training Center in the rural area of Rio Branco, where it conducts training activities, with two curricula approved by the State Council of Education of the State of Acre, training teachers and indigenous agroforestry agents.

¹ Available at: https://www.mma.gov.br/informma/item/616-preven%C3%A7%C3%A3o-e-controle-dodesmatamento-na-amaz%C3%B4nia 

THE PROJECT

The Value Chains in Indigenous Lands in Acre project was selected under the Support for Sustainable Productive Projects Public Call, launched by the Amazon Fund in 2012. This call aimed to promote the formulation and presentation of projects aimed at the development of economic activities for sustainable use of forest and biodiversity that would bring together small initiatives with traditional communities and family producers.

The project covered four TIs in the state of Acre and was implemented in partnership with local indigenous associations representing their inhabitants. It aimed to organize and promote the value chain of agroforestry products, covering: (i) the implementation and enrichment of agroforestry systems; (ii) the implementation of meliponiculture (keeping wild stingless bees); (iii) the implementation of the rearing and management of chelonians and fish; (iv) the implementation of flour plants and a sugarcane mill; and (v) the improvement of indigenous handicrafts.

Within the scope of the project, technical assistance was also provided, and indigenous agroforestry agents were trained, with the support of the Association of the Movement of the Indigenous Agroforestry Agents of Acre (Amaaiac). Indigenous agroforestry agents play an important role in territorial and environmental management in their communities, carrying out technical assistance and rural extension work in the villages, helping indigenous communities in the protection, recovery, conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.

Coordination action was also conducted to provide products from TIs for school meals under the PAA and Pnae.

INTERVENTION LOGIC

The project is part of the “sustainable production” component (1) of the Amazon Fund Logical Framework, which combines production efforts with ecological conservation. Three direct effects expected from the project implementation were defined, namely: (i) economic activities of sustainable use of forest, agroforestry and biodiversity developed; (ii) chains of agroforestry and biodiversity products with increased added value; and (iii) indigenous agroforestry agents strengthened and trained for the provision of technical assistance and rural extension in economic activities of sustainable use of forest, agroforestry and biodiversity.

The project sought to contribute so activities that keep the forest standing have economic attractiveness and constitute an alternative to deforestation in TIs. With the actions carried out, environmentally sustainable production chains were strengthened, generating food, occupation and income, as well as sequestering carbon with the expansion of vegetation cover through the implementation and enrichment of agroforestry systems, which contributes to the Amazon Fund’s general objective of “reducing deforestation with sustainable development in the Amazon.”

Click on the following image to view its objectives tree, that is, how the project's outputs and linked to the expected outcomes and impact.

ACTIVITIES EXECUTED

A total of 42 ha of agroforestry systems were implemented in deforested areas and other 196 ha of agroforestry systems were enriched, totaling 238 ha of recovered area in use for economic purposes. Agroforestry systems associate sustainable economic activities with forest reconstitution in degraded areas, resulting in a productive forest.

The agroforestry system implementation and enrichment action included the provision of technical advice in the communities of the four TIs, to support the activities of planting, enrichment and management of these areas. Also as part of this action: (i) agroforestry tool kits and brush cutters were distributed to 41 villages; (ii) 31 nurseries were built and 13,000 seedlings of 21 fruit species were produced; and (iii) five boats were purchased and delivered for production transportation.

The implementation of meliponiculture comprised workshops for the training of indigenous peoples in this productive activity. A total of 201 bee boxes (130 already in production) were installed, and there were practical activities of capture, swarm transfer, swarm multiplication and installation of meliponaries.

To implement the management of chelonians and fish, three weirs were built collectively in the TI Humaitá River Kaxinawa and one weir in the TI Upper Purus River. These four new weirs and the six existing weirs in the TI Upper Purus River were structured with the supply of fingerlings of four Amazonian species, initial feed for the rearing of fingerlings and chelonians and 14 kits for feed production. Thus, at the end of the project, the result of ten weirs with managed rearing of chelonians and/or fish was achieved.

A total of 118 flour plants were installed in three of the four TIs benefited by the project and a sugarcane mill was installed in the TI Humaitá Igarapé Arara. Flour production aims to ensure the food security of indigenous communities, allocating the surplus to trade through government school meal programs and sale in neighboring communities and municipalities.

Originally, the plan was to install a smaller number of flour plants (total of twenty); however, by proposal of the indigenous leaders, it was decided to replace the construction of the masonry houses centralized in the villages with kits of flour by demand of each community, directly serving a larger number of families. Thus, the families were responsible for making a traditional structure for the flour plant and the project provided the tools and machinery installed in these traditional structures.

To improve indigenous handicrafts, a handicraft and seed processing workshop was held, lasting five days in the TI Gregório River, to enhance the work that the Yawanawa women already performed. This workshop, with the participation of 42 indigenous persons, was mediated by three specialists in the areas of seed processing and technology, stamping, weaving, handicraft design and product development. Tools and machines were also provided to process seeds for the manufacture of handicrafts.

For the provision of technical assistance, four indigenous agroforestry agents were hired on a permanent basis, in partnership with Amaaiac, and consultants were hired when more specific technical knowledge was needed. These indigenous agroforestry agents, in addition to technical assistance activities, participated in seedling production, planting and agroforestry system management, as well as supported the planning and monitoring of project activities.

For the training of indigenous agroforestry agents, two technical courses were taught, one with 39 participants (with a workload of 250 hours) and another with 30 participants (with 312 hours). The participants came from nine indigenous peoples from 17 TIs. These courses provided knowledge on agroforestry; rearing and management of animals –
chelonian rearing and meliponiculture; organic vegetable garden; indigenous ecology; indigenous history and archaeology; mathematics; information technology and others.

The project promoted the coordination to supply products from TIs for school meals under the PAA and Pnae programs, through diagnosis of the production of villages and of the situation of school meals in the TIs, in addition to meetings with the municipal governments and efforts to raise awareness of the communities as to the need to organize production (planning and predicting what they could provide throughout the year). The main result obtained was in the TI Upper Purus River, which has four schools with regionalized school meals that are being supplied with local food production. 

RESULT AND IMPACT INDICATORS

The project activities contributed to the results related to the “sustainable production” component (2) of the Amazon Fund Logical Framework.

Direct effect 1.1: economic activities of sustainable use of forest, agroforestry and biodiversity developed

Direct effect 1.2: chains of agroforestry products and biodiversity with increased added value

The main indicators agreed for the monitoring of this objective were:

• Annual revenue from sustainable use economic activity – in natura products (outcome indicator)
  Goal: not set | Result achieved: R$ 78,500.00
  
  
• Annual revenue from sustainable use economic activity – processed products (R$) (outcome indicator)
  Goal: not set | Result achieved: R$ 409,121.00

Agroforestry products were commercialized as a result of the project’s actions, namely: banana, pineapple, coconut, orange, watermelon, açaí berry, cassava and corn. However, the main revenue was generated by activities that added some value to
in natura products, such as the commercialization of cassava flour. The baselines of the in natura and processed products (2015) were, respectively, R$ 20,000.00 and R$ 84,500.00. The results achieved refer to 2017. It is worth mentioning that the portion of the production that is consumed by the indigenous persons themselves (food security) was not measured by this indicator, because it is not commercialized.

• Recovered area used for economic purposes (outcome indicator)
  Goal: 170 ha | Result achieved: 238 ha

Deforested areas recovered by the implementation or enrichment of AFSs contributed to diversify the food of indigenous families, ensuring their food security by means of food production and income generation with the commercialization of surpluses.

Direct effect 1.3: expanded managerial and technical capacities for the implementation of economic activities of sustainable use of forest and biodiversity

• Indigenous persons trained to practice and manage sustainable economic activities that effectively apply the knowledge acquired (outcome indicator)
  Goal: not set | Result achieved: 88

The result achieved – 88 trained – covers individuals who effectively apply the acquired knowledge, who were trained in the two training courses of indigenous agroforestry agents and in the other training activities promoted by the project (exchanges and advisory).

Institutional and administrative aspects

Partnerships were established with four indigenous associations, representatives of the indigenous peoples of the four TIs benefited by the project, namely: (i) Upper Purus River Huni Kuin Indigenous People Organization (Opiharp); (ii) Yawanawa Sociocultural Association (Ascy); (iii) Humaitá Igarapé Shawadawa People Association (APSIH); and (iv) Humaitá River Indigenous People Association (ASPIRH).

The representatives of these associations participated in the planning and part of the execution of project activities in their TIs. These representatives also participated in their monitoring, following the work of the indigenous agroforestry agent hired for
each TI and participating in the monitoring and evaluation of the project throughout its implementation. Holding project monitoring and assessment meetings at each new stage of its implementation also contributed to develop the organizational capacity of partner indigenous associations.

A partnership was established with the Department of Agroforestry Extension and Production (Seaprof) of the state of Acre to support the transportation between municipalities of the materials to be taken to the TIs and to provide a technical specialist
in fish farming and a technical specialist in meliponiculture who mediated thematic workshops within the project.

Risks and lessons learned

Despite the relevant results achieved by the project, some challenges faced are highlighted whose corrective measures can be understood as lessons and recommendations for similar projects.

To implement the rearing and management of chelonians and fish, four weirs were built in two of the four TIs benefiting from project actions. The planned activities were carried out late, because of the time-consuming process to obtain response from the competent environmental agency on their environmental licensing.

The lesson learned is the recommendation that when a project provides for activities that need to start an environmental licensing process (even if it is to be exempted from this licensing), it is important to start the coordination with the competent agencies as soon as possible so as not to compromise the execution of the activity.

The objective of developing the honey value chain was partially achieved, as the project concentrated greater efforts on the training and installation of meliponaries, that is, in some of the stages of the chain, however, it did not delve into the development of the product for commercialization.

The prospect is that bee keeping and honey production will evolve, due to the great interest shown by the indigenous people and their ease to learn how to manage native bees. The major challenge will be the commercialization of honey, as there are specific sanitary standards for it to be marketed. Nevertheless, indigenous families and children benefited from the theme of food security, because, with the project, their access to this nutritious and medicinal food was expanded.

The team responsible for the project execution realized the need to further involve the administrative team in the planning of their activities, so they had a better understanding of the materials to be acquired for executing the planned activities.

A positive practice adopted by the project, motivated by the precarious logistics of the Amazon, is to create conditions so the performance of activities depend minimally on external inputs. In the implementation of the AFSs, one of the measures adopted was to invest in the production of seedlings in the TIs benefited by the project, thus reducing the need to bring seedlings from afar.

This strategy circumvented the difficulty of finding fruit seedlings in the municipalities near the TIs, as well as shortened the path between the nurseries and the AFS areas, reducing the challenge of river transport, which needs to respect several variables, such as the weight in the vessels, the water level in the rivers and the damage caused to the seedlings by the sun and wind during their transport.

It is also important to include and maintain constant dialogue with representatives of the beneficiary communities, consulting them and considering joint strategies to overcome challenges and/or make any proposal more efficient. For example, the activity with the AFSs took place differently from what was expected, with regard to the size of planting by TI, due to the observance, throughout the project, as to the vocation of each community and the corresponding demonstration of commitment to a given activity, which was unveiled with the evolution of the activities. This is an important and sensitive perception that projects of this nature must foster, seeking the balance between the promotion of new practices and respect for the characteristic designs of each community.

Regarding the government procurement programs PAA and Pnae, it was not possible to perform, comprehensively, the registration of indigenous producers interested in marketing. To access these programs it is necessary to obtain a Pronaf Fitness Statement (DAP). And the DAP was not issued for most TIs due to operational difficulties, such as availability of system and technicians trained by the municipalities to serve the indigenous population, in addition to the minimum requirements not adhering to the local reality. The issuance of DAP was possible only in the municipality of Santa Rosa do
Purus, for some of the beneficiaries of the project, allowing the commercialization of production for school meal.

Sustainability of the results

The project had the merit of directly benefiting 974 indigenous people, of which 362 were women. Among the main impacts observed, we highlight the increase in agroforestry production, the expansion of cassava processing, the commercialization
of these products, the training of indigenous families for new productive activities and the training of indigenous agroforestry agents. It is estimated that these positive impacts are sustainable, because in addition to ensuring food security they also provide an economic alternative.

The initial investment in inputs, tools and machines enhanced agroforestry production and other productive activities supported by the project, which were also benefited by technical assistance and training.

Efforts were also made so that indigenous associations and families benefited understood the importance of being responsible for all material goods granted to them, ensuring their proper use and proper maintenance. One of the challenges is that they realize, over time, the need to reinvest resources in the tools and inputs needed to continue with the strengthened production, ensuring the sustainability of these productive activities and their economic autonomy.