Community Skills Project for the Serra do Brigadeiro

In November 2003, Iracambi learned of the existence of substantial mining claims on 75,000 hectares of farm and forest land in the region around Iracambi, including areas within the buffer zone of the Serra do Brigadeiro State Park. Ironically, the park shelters one of the best preserved remnants of highland semi-deciduous Atlantic Forest in the state, and is one of the highest conservation priority areas. The 6,700 hectares of bauxite deposits in the area around the park is estimated to be worth US$2 billion.

Our first job was to pull together a coalition of concerned stakeholders, call for public hearings, and sit down to analyze this unexpected development that threatened to checkmate our efforts to conserve the forest. We focus our efforts on working with our partners to help the local community understand the implications of the proposed mining, and examine different ways of managing change in a way that preserves rural lifestyles and protects our extraordinary natural resources.

Since there will clearly be some level of mining in the area, our priority is to work with the community to ensure that the mining will not impact delicate conservation areas, and that such areas that are mined will be returned to their current condition or better. The law requires mining companies to recuperate mined areas, thereby opening the way for farmers to restore degraded areas and, if they wish, plant forest areas to comply with the law and derive economic benefits from government incentives for reforestry. They can also profit from the opportunity to diversify farm economies through experimenting with different crops and different cropping patterns, as well as setting up small businesses.

Community Skills Building

In September 2008, with the support of the Inter American Foundation, Iracambi got to work on our three year, $300,000 Community Skills Building project in five of the nine counties of the Serra do Brigadeiro Territory. The project works in three areas: community empowerment, natural resource management and rural enterprise development - all with a view to helping us preserve our forests and improve rural livelhoods. Through creating partnerships, conducting participatory rural appraisals, and facilitating educational and capacity-building workshops we have been able to create and sucessfully manage several environmental protection areas, pilot agroforestry schemes to increase forest cover and generate income, and foster the growth of an entirely new attitude of can-do, encouraging people to take charge of their lives and their futures.