Biomes in regeneration: after the floods in Rio Grande do Sul, women show how medicinal agroforests can transform territories and rewrite futures

May 2024. Nearly twenty days of rain left much of Rio Grande do Sul under water. When the rain finally stopped, with support from the Casa Socio-environmental Fund, gatherings of the Coletiva Feminista de Destiladoras began to take shape — a network of 25 women dedicated to exchanging knowledge about medicinal plants.

The heart of the workshops is their union around the distiller, the machine that processes herbs and releases essential oils and hydrosols. They share experiences on cultivating medicinal agroforestry systems, on distillation techniques, and on the many uses of the raw material they extract. They also learn to create chemical compositions, optimize processes, and market the diverse products derived from plants more efficiently.

Ingu helü: in Upper Xingu, an educational booklet preserves the culture, spirituality, and language of the Kuikuro people

What do the words of a language hold about the culture to which they belong? In the Upper Xingu, Indigenous children learn to read and write in community schools, dividing their time between Portuguese and Kuikuro.

On the other side of the classroom, however, teachers lacked support and resources. Without teaching materials designed for Indigenous peoples, they had to reinvent their own methods of instruction.

In Ponta do Tubarão, a community bank helps sustain the ancestral way of life of fishers and shellfish gatherers

Since the Justice and Peace Commission of the Ponta do Tubarão Sustainable Development Reserve received support from the Casa Socio-environmental Fund, a community currency named “Seahorse” has been in circulation. Here’s how it works: any merchant in the reserve can register for the project. Once enrolled, they begin accepting Seahorses as a means of exchange in their establishments, and residents supported by the Social Fund created by the project can use the new currency to pay for goods and services. For every 100 Seahorses received, merchants must contribute one Seahorse to the Social Bank. Once the currency returns to the Social Bank, the funds are redistributed to the residents of Ponta do Tubarão, creating a new financial cycle.

In Coremas, Paraíba, quilombola women become teachers through workshops on vegetable cultivation and traditional land-based knowledge

In Coremas, in the Paraiban Caatinga, lives an entire world of knowledge. There lies the Santa Tereza quilombo, where, from generation to generation, knowledge has been accumulated about plants, farming, and the medicines offered by the nature.

It was also in Santa Tereza that the first socio-environmental project proposed by the community — and supported by the Casa Socio-environmental Fund — was born. With the resources provided, women dedicate themselves to working in gardens and fields. They cultivate vegetables and medicinal herbs, which are sold directly to consumers or to the local market in Coremas, without intermediaries.

Meet BRIVAC, the volunteer brigade in Chapada dos Veadeiros that protects the Cerrado from fire and spreads knowledge about wildfire prevention

The Cavalcante Volunteer Environmental Brigade (Brivac) was born out of urgency. Tour guides in the town would abandon their work whenever fire spread through the Chapada dos Veadeiros. Without protective equipment or training, they fought the flames as best they could.

In 2017, when wildfires reached unprecedented proportions, the guides received their first support from the Casa Socio-environmental Fund. Brivac was then able to invest in proper equipment to protect the brigadiers and help extinguish the fire as quickly as possible.

From Amazonian fruits to community empowerment:  the work of the Surucuá Cooperative opens new pathways to the future on the banks of the Tapajós River

On the banks of the Tapajós River, in Pará, an abundance of Amazonian fruits was once cultivated in the backyards of the Surucuá community. The long distances to the nearest city, however, prevented production from going beyond the village, and the surplus often went to waste.

In 2020, the community envisioned a new path. With support from the Casa Socio-environmental Fund, they founded the Surucuá Agroextractive Cooperative (Cooprasu). By investing in machinery, they began processing and freezing the fruits, which, once chilled, could travel down the river to the city of Santarém — reaching final consumers without intermediaries.

Clean energy from the favela to the world: in Rio de Janeiro, Revolusolar shows that a just energy transition begins in the periphery and moves toward the center

In 2016, residents of Morro da Babilônia decided to install solar panels on the roof of a hostel. What began as an experiment to generate energy soon evolved into Revolusolar, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building an inclusive and community-driven energy transition.

Two years later came a turning point: with the first financial support from the Casa Socio-enviromental Fund, the NGO built a solar power plant at the Tia Percília Community School, also in Morro da Babilônia. More than just providing electricity for the school, this achievement marked a new chapter for the institution.