Brazil Learning Exchange: Amazon Community Fund Network Exchange

Gathering and sharing knowledge across our global network is at the heart of our work. This July was marked by an important 4 day-event which took place in Esperantina, Piaui, Brazil. Together with our partner, the Interstate Movement of the Babaçu Coconut Breakers (MIQCB), organizations from the Brazilian Community Funds Network and indigenous and Afrodescendant-led organisations from Colombia and Ecuador, we gathered for a learning exchange on community funds in the Amazon.  

Throughout the 4 days, representatives and active members of a diverse range of Brazilian community funds (such as the Babassu Fund, Fundo Podaali Fund, Dema Fund, Mizizi Dudu Fund,  “Luzia Dorothy do Espiritu Santo” Fund , Puxirum Funds, Timbira Indigenous Fund, Rio Negro Indigenous  Fund) and members from the Confederation of Indigenous Nations of the Ecuadorian Amazon, the National Organisation of the Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon and from the Black Communities Process,  had a one-of-a-kindopportunity to share, listen, and discuss with each other the relevant connections between social movements and community-led funds as well as the importance that these funds bring to ensuring grassroots indigenous, afro-descendant, and local communities’ rights. 

During the exchange, participants also shared valuable lessons and identified potential collaboration strategies to strengthen community funds in the Amazon region. They also participated in a field visit to the Babassu coconut forests in the first recognized Babassu Coconut Breakers’ collective territory in Brazil, where they could observe and value the Babaçu Coconut Breakers’ work of the coconut breakers women, whose livelihoods rely on caring and sustainably harvesting the babassu palm. 

 

Key takeaways:

1. Community funds are key for channeling resources to grassroots communities and for community organisations to access public policies. By strengthening these funds and building dignity across communities, movements politically position themselves and the importance of tenure rights.

2. Community funds are more than a financial tool. By following a participatory structure and by addressing grassroot issues, funds can promote Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendants, and local communities’ political and self-determination rights. By collectively addressing the challenges territories present and taking decisions at a community/local level, funds allow communities to develop capacities to influence external economic and social processes.

3. There is power in collaboration. By collectively working on strategies to develop community funds, these can become robust tools for indigenous, afro-descendant and local communities’ tenure rights, and for livelihood improvements in the region.

 

Some of their reflections: 

“Community funds are not just tools for receiving resources. They are mechanisms for advancing the struggle and political positioning of movements.”  Toya Manchineri – COIAB 

“Through community funds, resources reach the grassroots level. It’s a way for people to advance public policies, unifying the struggle to advance further and occupy spaces of power and decision-making.”  Valeria Carneiro – Malungu 

Learning Exchanges

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