Nowadays, many agro-extractivist families from the North of Minas Gerais live in municipalities with low Human Development Index (HDI), located in highly peripheral areas, far from major urban centers and better opportunities for training and commercialization. Most of these families are headed by women, who manage small plots of land, and need to complement their low income through sustainable extractivism.

However, the North of Minas Gerais has great potential for the development of sociobiodiversity, and to adequate conditions will allow it to thrive and ensure quality of life for these families. These communities already use native fruits for both food and income generation, and encouraging the professionalization and formalization of this work will contribute to household food security and boost the local economy.

The Grande Sertão Cooperative has the mission of bringing together these farmers and extractivists to process and commercialize their products, aiming to improve their quality of life while protecting the environment. By fostering new approaches, the cooperative develops solutions and strategies for collaborative activities that strengthen these communities. Among its actions, a key focus is the continuous transfer and co-construction of knowledge through training in associativism and cooperativism, good production practices, management, and conservation of rural territories where sustainable agro-extractivism takes place.