Active Project

Brazil

The Dedicated Grant Mechanism for Indigenous Peoples, Traditional Communities, and Quilombolas of the Cerrado (DGM Brazil) project objective was to strengthen the engagement of the Cerrado biome’s Indigenous Peoples and Traditional Communities (IPTCs) in FIP, REDD+, and similar climate change-oriented programs at the local, national, and global level; and to contribute towards improving livelihoods, land use, and sustainable forest management in their territories.

  • Between April 2015 and January 2022, DGM Brazil financed 64 subprojects in 10 states in the Cerrado and 85 municipalities. These subprojects focused on ecosystem restoration with native Cerrado species, support for small agroindustry’s processing and marketing of Cerrado socio-biodiversity products, territorial surveillance and environmental management, agroecological production, strengthening artisan production, community-based tourism, and organization institutional strengthening. Of the 64 subprojects, 36 were Indigenous-led, 15 were led by traditional communities, and 13 were led by Quilombolas. A total of 11,041 women were involved and 13 subprojects were specifically women-led. A total of 34,780 community members were directly involved in this project, including 9,925 youth and 3,326 elders. Another key result from this project was that 6 million hectares of area were conserved under the management of peoples from the Cerrado.

To learn more about DGM Brazil, visit https://www.dgmglobal.org/brazil.

Project Highlight

An important economic activity for the quilombola families of the Pontinha community in the Brazilian Cerrado is the production and commercialization of pulp. However, this activity was being compromised since the families involved were not meeting the sanitary conditions and market standards to have their product circulate the market. Through the DGM Brazil subproject process, the community submitted a proposal and was selected to implement their project titled, “Processing and marketing of sociobiodiversity products.”

This subproject supported the community in acquiring the equipment needed to produce native cerrado fruit pulp in family backyards. This radically changed the way pulps are produced, which previously were produced by individual families and did not meet the market requirements or sanitary conditions, now pulp is produced in a communal manner and meets market standards, as well as environmental and sanitary requirements.

In addition, ecological studies on good management practices were conducted and the extraction of other fruits (cagaita and araticum), as well as feasibility studies for the commercialization of these fruits in the market, aiming to diversify and increase production and outflow; and commercialization and dissemination of the products in fairs. The production of pulps produced within the market requirements and sanitary conditions have made it possible to reach a more demanding market and thus a larger volume of commercialized products, increasing the families' income generation. The experience of strengthening the agro-extractivist quilombo of Pontinha has yielded results for the community, by enhancing, diversifying, and marketing the production, in addition to the fact that the Instituto Sustentar was able to get approval for additional funding through a different donor, which will provide continuity to the actions carried out by this subproject. This subproject has contributed substantially to the subsistence of the families involved, with the installation and operation of a fruit processing factory for cerrado products.

© Leo Lopes

© Leo Lopes

“One of the greatest achievements within the DGM was that we were able to work with women because women, especially in the communities, don't see the importance of being a Quilombola woman, of being an Indigenous woman, of being an extractivist woman. The DGM brings us not only money, but it brings to the communities the awareness that the community is capable of managing their own resources.”

– Lucely Pio, DGM Brazil GSC Member