Meet the Local Organizations Restoring Land and Prosperity in Brazil's Amazon
For entrepreneurs like Gilberto Nobumasa and community leaders like Giselda Pereira, restoring degraded areas in the Brazilian Amazon is about more than preserving nature. It's about protecting a way of life and helping communities prosper.
Nobumasa, founder of Fortparaoil, engages family farmers and quilombola (Afro-descendant) communities to turn native fruits grown on restored land into natural oils and butters. Pereira, a local leader of the Landless Workers’ Movement in Brazil's Pará State, works with people living in informal settlements to restore the forest while growing sustainable food.
Connecting organizations like theirs to finance is essential to building a just economy in the Amazon that benefits people, nature and the climate.
That's why WRI Brasil, with support from Sitawi Finance for Good, created Fundo Flora, a partnership that directs philanthropic, public and private capital to organizations that are at the center of Brazil's restoration economy.
In Pará State, the heart of the Amazon, Fundo Flora’s first cohort of funded projects is making a difference. Together, these leaders are beginning a new chapter for financing restoration in the Amazon.
Connecting Land, Life and Economy
Inspired by WRI’s TerraFund partnership in Africa, Fundo Flora adopts an innovative model to select, finance and monitor restoration projects in the Amazon. Through grants and concessional loans, it connects local enterprises and organizations with the capital they need to expand their restoration efforts.
Fundo Flora is currently investing $3.35 million to support 10 projects and 26 organizations throughout Pará, including cooperatives, civil society organizations, and enterprises that work across restoration value chains.
The projects combine ecological and productive restoration, creating jobs and strengthening the Amazon bioeconomy.
- Restoring ecosystems: Through techniques such as assisted natural regeneration (ANR), agroforestry systems and direct seeding, projects will revitalize degraded areas, improve soil quality, safeguard biodiversity and expand forest cover.
- Strengthening the bioeconomy: Projects operate in key value chains in the Amazon, such as açaí, cocoa, cupuaçu, Brazil nut, copaiba and andiroba. They process and aggregate these crops, expand nurseries and strengthen seed networks.
- Generating positive impact on people: Apart from advancing environmental restoration, projects benefit surrounding communities by creating new job opportunities and improving food security, access to markets, and ecosystem services like clean water.
Through WRI's tried and tested monitoring, reporting and verification framework, Fundo Flora blends field data with remote sensing techniques to track and manage the results of these projects. This approach enhances transparency for financiers and gives champions unique opportunities to attract additional capital through compelling data that highlights their success.
The announcement of the first cohort consolidates Fundo Flora’s work on the ground, transforming existing policy and research into concrete action for local communities. By directing finance where it is needed most, Fundo Flora is accelerating landscape restoration and helping spur an inclusive and resilient restoration economy for the Amazon.
Meet Pará’s Restoration Champions
Associação Brasil Popular (Abrapo)
Municipalities: Santa Bárbara do Pará, Castanhal, Barcarena, Acará, Marabá, Eldorado do Carajás, Parauapebas
Abrapo will naturally regenerate more than 1,000 hectares of forest. The project will train local cooperatives to build two seed supply centers and create 6 seed collection areas, supplying 18 nurseries. Its work will support 15 jobs and benefit more than a thousand people in total.
Centro de Formação produção e Artes da Amazônia (CONDURU)
Municipality: Marabá
CONDURU is an association founded by young people from settlements in southern and southeastern Pará. The project will build community nurseries and train women and youth in the principles of agroecology. It plans to restore 40 hectares of land and benefit more than 300 people.
Cooperativa Agrícola de Produtores do Oeste do Pará (CCAMPO)
Municipalities: Santarém, Belterra and Mojuí dos Campos
CCAMPO is an agricultural cooperative that will create 15 hectares of agroforestry systems, focused on açaí and cupuaçu fruit. By replicating this pilot across its member farms, CCAMPO aims to show that diversifying crops can improve incomes and create jobs for rural youth. The project will support 30 jobs and benefit 160 people.
Cooperativa Agroindustrial Frutos da Amazônia (COAFRA)
Municipality: Castanhal
COAFRA, a cooperative, will grow 15 hectares of agroforestry systems and establish a community nursery in partnership with a local school. The proposal includes training young people and women in seedling production, agroforestry management and entrepreneurship, supporting 6 new jobs and benefiting more than a thousand people.
Florestas Engenharia
Municipality: Parauapebas
Florestas Engenharia, a reforestation company, will focus on transforming degraded landscapes into sustainable, productive systems. It plans to establish a nursery with an initial capacity of 500,000 seedlings and a production potential of up to 4 million seedlings per year by 2030. The project will support 7 jobs and benefit 240 people.
Fortparaoil
Municipality: Acará
Fortparaoil will restore 305 hectares of degraded areas through assisted natural regeneration and agroforestry, supporting 29 jobs and benefiting more than 300 people. The company will process seed oils to strengthen the local value chain, integrating environmental regeneration with improvements to local incomes.
Instituto Floresta Tropical Johan Zweede (IFT)
Municipalities: Bragança, Cachoeira do Piriá and Oeiras do Pará
With three decades of experience in the Amazon, IFT will restore 60 hectares, recovering areas damaged by forest fires. IFT will advise three local cooperatives that bring together family farmers and quilombola communities. The communities will manage high-quality restoration projects on their own land, supporting 30 jobs and benefiting 270 people.
Tribo Superfoods
Municipality: Igarapé-Miri
Tribo Superfoods will work to recover 16 hectares of land by diversifying a monoculture açaí farm with cocoa, cupuaçu, Brazil nuts and other native species. The company will connect restoration with the consumer market, supporting 18 jobs and benefitting over 220 people.
Verde Novo
Municipality: Irituia
Verde Novo’s project will restore 40 hectares of forest through assisted natural regeneration and direct seeding. The project will create a community network of seed collectors to supply restoration projects, with a focus on improving the income of female leaders. Verde Novo will engage local cooperatives, supporting 40 jobs and benefiting 250 people.
Zeno Nativo
Municipality: Acará
Zeno Nativo’s project will regenerate 37 hectares of forest and grow trees on farms, supporting 48 jobs and benefiting 120 people. The project will strengthen the Brazil nut and fine cocoa value chains through improving crop traceability and local incomes.
The Bezos Earth Fund, The Coca-Cola Foundation and AKO Foundation provide anchor funding for Fundo Flora. Learn more here.