To meet increasing demand of support and capacity-building for small and mid-size South American organizations, the Center of Socio-Environmental Support has made efforts to expand its work based on an intercontinental outlook. It has established closer relations with the Global Greengrants Fund, thus increasing networking and synergy with the Southern Cone and Andean Councils, as well as with the Fund Alliance, which also has institutions in Canada, Mexico, Southeast Asia and the Netherlands. In this way, CASA has supported groups that monitor actions and decisions in the South American territory, put in practice innovative solutions for socio-environmental challenges, as well as communities affected by megaprojects. At every step, the need for CASA to become a major social investor in South America becomes more evident.

South America has mountainous, semiarid, coastal, pampa, and tropical forest regions, as well as the world's largest hydrographic basin – the Amazon Basin. This diversity is not limited to territorial physical characteristics. In South American countries, peoples and cultures strive to maintain their identities, customs, and habitats, in the face of globalizing trends and growth of urban centers.

Environmental themes emerge in government and business agendas, when research indicates the human impact on climate change and global warming, as well as the importance of avoiding deforestation and adopting more sustainable practices. On the other hand, environments are deeply transformed to favor exclusively economic development in South American countries.

In December 2009, during the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, academics and activists highlighted the importance of keeping the forests standing and sustaining native communities in their original locations. The 2009 Economics Nobel laureate, Elinor Ostrom, of Indiana University, stated: "If Indigenous and native peoples in the developing world are not recognized and their rights are not ensured, we will have more deforestation."

Based on this context, the CASA Advisory Board analyzes political and economic issues, as well as socio-environmental threats, to define strategies that will strengthen democracy and civil society autonomy in South America.

It takes into account the following:

• Rapid economic growth is directly related to the degradation of natural resources. Brazil has already become a major economic actor. Investments flows have hit record levels and post-crisis exports have shown signs of recovery. However, exports and resumption of economic growth depend on so-called "renewable" natural resources, such as agrofuels, mostly derived from sugarcane (ethanol) and soybean, or hydroelectric power. Although "renewable," the dispute over these resources and the production scale make them automatically unsustainable, both in environmental and economic terms.
• The South American Regional Integration Initiative (IIRSA) was placed on government agendas in the region. NGOs, social movements, and scientists criticize the social, economic, and environmental impact of projects that do not take into account the needs of the affected populations, alteration of river courses, increased deforestation, and environmental pollution. Despite ongoing criticism and evidence of the huge social and environmental damages caused by those projects, all South American country governments press forward with gigantic undertakings, geared to adjust the regional economy to the interests of the globalized market and large companies. CASA has systematically supported projects throughout the South American region that aim to inform affected communities so that they will have sufficient knowledge to negotiate for their rights.
• We witnessed the process of climate change becoming an uncontested truth, not only because of COP 15, but mainly because of increasingly frequent climate phenomena and adversities throughout the world. On this issue, we must be careful about false solutions and emerging speculative markets. It will be necessary to mobilize funds and emergency support for communities affected by extreme climate phenomena. CASA has supported many projects that show local resilience to climate change.

Local transformation initiatives and alternatives, supported by CASA, are important because:

1. They are resistant to national and international shocks.
2. They are solutions that work in a human scale, and not "one-size-fits-all."
3. They function as laboratories where new practices and alternatives are tried out.
4. It is easier for people to see the connections in real local changes.

There is a lot of dynamism in the discovery and execution of those alternatives: creative youth developing innovative action; small farmers generating their own energy without impacting the environment; urban dwellers reflecting on climate change and revising their behavior.

Some of the new areas prioritized by CASA are the urban environment – since 70% of the population in South America lives in urban areas – and the maritime problems of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. However, there are other areas that remain within our focus, such as biofuels, agroecology, climate change, and native peoples' rights. For example, the South American Fund for Indigenous Peoples is being created.

CASA identifies groups and movements whose objectives are to ensure environmental balance and quality of life, in order to support projects that, although apparently small, are added to other initiatives to create synergy results with local, regional, and global impacts.

Read more at Impact and Results