Project in process | Family farming
Buritizando
Location
West of Bahia, in the municipalities of São Desidério, Correntina, Coso, Jaborandi and Formosa do Rio Preto. This region is predominantly rural, characterized by vast agricultural properties. Within this mosaic, there are agroextractive families and communities living in isolation, often engaged in highly individualized work, which presents challenges in accessing the market.
Species: Buriti (Mauritia flexuosa)
Palm tree native to the Cerrado and the Amazônia biomes, also known as miriti or palmeira-do-brejo, moriche, carangucha and aguaje. It occurs naturally in permanently flooded areas, known as “veredas” or marshes. All parts of the plant are usable, and its fruit is one of the fruits that contain the highest levels of vitamin A globally.
Before the harvest season begins, the collector traverses the buriti groves to tally and record the number of bunches. This practice provides an estimate of potential production. At this stage, the collector takes the opportunity to create paths or collection trails within the forest, linking mature bunches on the buriti trees. This facilitates the collection and transportation of fruits during the harvest.
Ripe fruits are gathered when they naturally fall from the tree. Cutting bunches from the palm tree is considered to be more time-consuming and hazardous. Many collectors believe that severing the bunch from the tree diminishes the buriti's future fruit yield in the next harvest.
Community history
The project aims to benefit 50 families of agroextractivists residing in western Bahia. These families currently rely on agricultural production and extractivism for their livelihoods. Some engage in small-scale animal husbandry for personal consumption, with an average annual income ranging from R$6 to 20 thousand. Despite being involved in agricultural activities, they don't fully harness the land's potential. Often due to a lack of guidance or out of necessity, they resort to overexploiting species to meet market demands, striving for minimal financial returns.
The participating families' realities vary significantly, yet they are all classified as family farmers, a classification limiting their participation in the Solidarity Marketing Network. They encompass small community organizations (such as associations or agrarian reform settlements) that own up to 70 hectares of land, as well as families who currently lack land ownership and need to rent land from third parties for production. Some families faced severe losses in 2021 due to extreme weather events like droughts, fires and floods. While the average property size stands at 20 hectares, most families possess only 1 to 2 hectares, resulting in isolated production insufficient to meet market demands. Moreover, due to their remote locations, they heavily rely on intermediaries to sell their produce, leading to reduced financial returns.
Historical impacts:
2000 – Constitution of CEDAC
2001 – Creation of the brand “Empório do Cerrado”
2014 – CEDAC is accredited as a Organismo Participativo de Avaliação da Conformidade Orgânica by MAPA, and became part of the Brazilian Organic Conformity Assessment System
2022 - Formalization of Boticário’s support for the “Buritizando” project
The project
The “Buritizando” Project aims to organize the sustainable agroextractivism of buriti (Mauritia flexuosa) in western Bahia, guaranteeing income for 50 agroextractive families and the conservation of the socio-biodiversity of the Cerrado. Thus, it is expected to strengthen the cooperative organization and the solidarity marketing network, obtaining economic and socio-environmental results for families.
50
trained agroextractivists
10
communities benefiting and participating in the project
50
properties prepared for participatory organic certification
R$
adding value to agroextractive products
Project impacts
Project Activities
Promote community participation through mobilization, organization and project evaluation meetings
Several meetings will be held to mobilize and organize communities in community centers, as well as meetings for socio-productive planning and project evaluation, ensuring everyone's participation in the process of building the activities.
Training agroextractive families to manage, use, preserve and pre-benefit Cerrado species
Workshops will be offered on sustainable management, use, conservation and pre-processing of buriti, in addition to workshops on the participatory organic certification process - a process that has CEDAC itself as an evaluation body - and which brings several benefits to producing families.
Organize the production chain of socio-biodiversity products with agroextractive families and invest in their inclusion in a cooperative
This activity involves a partnership with Coopcerrado, which will organize together with family farming families the collection of fruits, storage, transportation, industrialization and marketing of products during the buriti harvest. The entire process will be monitored by monitors from the Community Centers, who must keep track of the quantity produced and collected by each family.
Realization
Grupo Boticário
One of the largest beauty groups in the world, Grupo Boticário is a Brazilian company present in 50 countries. It owns the brands O Boticário, Eudora, Quem Disse, Berenice?, BeautyBox, Vult, O.u.i, Dr. JONES, Truss and the Beleza na Web marketplace, in addition to working with licensed products such as Australian Gold and its division for the B2B market. This interaction between different brands, assets, platforms, network of franchisees, representatives, distributors, retailers, sellers and suppliers forms the beauty ecosystem of Grupo Boticário, which also offers digital business management solutions for Brazilian retail through its brands Mooz, Casa Magalhães and GAVB. There are more than 15 thousand direct employees, with more than 4 thousand points of sale in 1,780 Brazilian cities.
Guided by responsible action towards the planet, society and consumers, the company has ESG embedded in its business model. By 2030, the Group plans to expand the positive impact on society through waste management with the “A Beauty of the Future” platform, which brings together ambitious commitments focused on the human, environmental dimensions and our production processes.
The history of Grupo Boticário began in 1977 in a small compounding pharmacy in Paraná and today it combines laboratory, factory, innovation, technology, logistics, marketing and retail, in an ecosystem of 64 thousand retail points of sale, partners and suppliers. The company also operates on environmental, social and cultural fronts and has operations with Fundação Grupo Boticário and Instituto Grupo Boticário. Find out more at www.grupoboticario.com.br
CEDAC
Established in 2000, with the purpose of advising rural communities in the Cerrado to overcome poverty and social injustice by valuing the know-how of these communities in the Territory - Biome - Cerrado. The Solidarity Commercialization Network mobilized by CEDAC, whose principles come from the National Center for Agroecology, enables the development of sustainable practices in the cerrados, adding value to products aimed at food, medicines, cosmetics, among others.
VBIO.eco
Bioeconomy platform that enables projects to value Brazilian biodiversity. It has a multidisciplinary team with more than 12 years of experience in project management and corporate communication. Its work has already enabled the operation of 23 projects to enhance biodiversity and created a network of more than 500 organizations and companies active in the socio-environmental cause.
