CAMTA, Brazil
- DefinitionDevising project idea, defining the aim and main components
- DesignSpecifying details such as time-frame, budget, target indicators, project partners and relevant steps to reach the project objectives
- Open to FinancingSearching and securing funding and investment, setting up relevant financing partnerships, and discussing payment modalities
- ImplementationExecution of feasibility studies, context analysis, plot design, planting and setting up facilities and starting with potential capacity-building
- MaintenanceOperational phase (monitoring and evaluation, impact assessments and adjustments, execution of educational programmes and long-term capacity building)
- Scaling UpScaling up phase is when the project it has already shown success by obtaining impact as well as economic results and it's ready to become replicable.
Cooperativa Agrícola Mista de Tomé-Açu, in short CAMTA, is a cooperative of 170 cooperative members with more than 2.800 farmers working with Agroforestry for more than 15+ years in the Brazilian Amazon. CAMTA and reNature has started a pioneering carbon credit project, together with Rabobank who carried out a risk analysis. The carbon credit was sold to Microsoft through a Rabobank marketplace called Acorn.
Development Challenge
Located in the northeastern region of the State of Pará – in the eastern Amazon Region Area, which expands to around 5,145 K㎡ and has a population of 60,456 people (IBGE 2015), Tomé-Açú is 220km distant from the State capital Belém. The region still practices slash and burn agriculture, named coivara and the several farmers have depleted plots of land, besides contributing to the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere.
Palm Oil can be good and CAMTA proves that by implementing a successful agroforestry business case that improves the economic resilience of the cooperative as well as the climate resilience.
Jun Mauro, CAMTA farmer
Intervention
The Cooperative needs to strengthen its own agroforestry produce, since it already exports some crops such as Cocoa and Açaí. However, it is important that the cooperative members receive training and that new regenerative plots of land are developed.
Objective
Within this approach, we aim to give the project the necessary support to contribute significantly to social-economical improvements in the region.
The Project’s Environmental, Social and Economic Impact
The project supports farmers with technical assistance about regenerative agroforestry. This is called capacity building. It will improve the economic resilience, livelihood, and food security of the local communities through crop diversification, reduce CO2 emissions, increase biodiversity, and stop land degradation.
Stop land degradation and improve soil & water management
Environmental Impact
The project is expected to capture over 95 Mton CO2, over the course of 15 years, through the planting of 1.045.500 Plants, while avoiding carbon emissions 5 times as much as the “Chop-and-mulch” cropping system.
Social Impact
The project itself has the potential to create a capacity-building approach, while allowing the farmers that aren’t directly related to the cooperative to develop their own plots of land throughout regenerative agriculture.
Economic Impact
The project itself has the potential to generate over EUR 5.7 Million of income for the region, while creating direct jobs for over 87 families.
Financial Details
It is planned, for the full lifecycle of the project, to be invested EUR 6.4 Million in order to achieve its peak positive impacts in the region. One of the main strengths in the business case is that the financial indicators are positive, with the payback happening in 9 years and the breakeven happening in year 4, according to the financial models.
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Creating the ‘new normal’ with palm oil agroforestry
