Products and photo of Yanciã - personal archive for publicity
By Agência Brasil
Rafael Cardoso* - Special envoy
Published on 13/01/2025 - 07:35
Manaus
Amazon bioeconomy: the challenge of generating income and conserving the forest
The model involves biodiversity conservation and cultural appreciation.
Cupuaçu, cumaru, taperebá, tucupi, bacuri and buriti. From the depths of the forest, the typical products of the Amazon are harvested by the experienced hands of local communities. They are then transported by boatmen across winding rivers. When they arrive in Belém, Pará, they are transformed into juices, spices, sauces, jellies, granolas, flours, and farofas.
The production cycle, which involves different people and ends in the sale of the products of the Manioca and Amazonique companies, is a very representative example of the bioeconomy or socio-bioeconomy, a business model that combines income generation, biodiversity conservation, and cultural appreciation.
“We have a very strong sense of purpose. It is driven by a genuine interest in generating social impact. And also to generate innovation from these Amazonian ingredients. It's a very direct relationship between companies and communities of all kinds, usually traditional people. These communities become suppliers. And from this relationship of supplying raw materials, we develop technical assistance, generate income, and create a long-term relationship of trust,” explains Paulo Reis, co-founder of Manioca and Amazonique.
Born in Belém, he abandoned his career as a lawyer and chose to start a business that would have a positive impact on local society and nature. Manioca was founded in 2014 with a focus on food products made from cassava. The company reaches markets in 13 Brazilian states and 12 other countries. Amazonique, focused on the production of Amazonian fruit juices, was created in 2022 and, for the time being, can be found on the shelves of the capital of Pará.
“There are around 50 families and 11 different towns that supply us with raw materials. And we collaborate with technical assistance for them, with direct contracts, fair long-term prices and we also monitor the preservation of the area,” says Reis.
The businessman is a member of the Socio-Bio-Economic Business Association of the Amazon (Assobio), whose mission is the socio-economic development of the region, prioritizing the conservation of the biome and people's well-being. There are 75 member companies, more than 600 jobs, and a turnover of more than R$ 42 million. Around 60% of the business is food, but there are other sectors such as cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, accessories, and fashion.
Together, the companies buy around 100 different ingredients from the Amazon, which go beyond the region's main economic chains, such as açaí, cocoa, and rubber. Assobio believes that the ideal scale for Amazon is the multiplication of small and medium-sized initiatives.
“The Amazon is very used to always thinking about big projects as if this were a place with a lot of land for not many people. And as if we here always needed large-scale intervention from outside. It's much healthier for the region if we think about the creation and development of several small and medium-sized companies. There's no point in large companies coming here aggressively, which could damage biodiversity, our traditions, and the way of life that we want to preserve so much,” argues Paulo Reis.
This position is corroborated by Valcleia dos Santos Lima, superintendent of the Amazonas Sustainable Foundation (FAS), for whom it is necessary to prioritize plurality over mechanized monoculture.
“It's important that we see the Amazonian environment as plural. And that it's not appropriate, for example, to destroy an entire biodiversity to produce a single product, such as soy, corn, rice, or even livestock. You can extract a range of products from this diverse territory. And not stick to production that has no results for the local population, that generates few jobs. For Amazon, this type of business is not sustainable,” she says.
The expert also believes that the bioeconomy is a suitable model for extracting wealth from the forest, without having to deforest it. In this case, the most important concept would be to generate income from the conservation of the Amazon.
“We have this difference between preservation and conservation. Preservation is what you can't touch. We have areas and territories in the Amazon that are preservation areas. And conservation is sustainable use. It's allowing what's left of residents' livelihoods to be marketed and generate income for them, sustainably and responsibly, explains Valcleia.
Açaí and tucumã proteins
Economist and businesswoman Priscila Almeida was born in Minas Gerais but made the Amazon her home 18 years ago. She is also a member of Assobio and owns a biotechnology company applied to food, Smart Food. The company was created in 2016 and sells vegan products. Among the alternative proteins on offer are açaí burgers, sausages meatballs, and tucumã burgers.
They also sell freeze-dried tucumã and açaí, i.e. dehydrated in a process that goes straight from the solid to the gaseous state, without passing through the liquid. According to Priscila, they are 100% natural, without additives, and preserve the flavors and nutrients of the Amazon rainforest. In addition, 60% of the ingredients come from extractive communities in the Amazon.
In addition to Amazon, the company sells its products in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, and Espírito Santo. And it has plans to reach markets abroad. One of the obstacles at the moment is the effects of the climate crisis, such as the increasingly intense droughts in the Amazon.
“Our business has been affected this year and probably will be in the coming years. The drought has had an impact on Tucumã, which is a chain we work in. The drought is causing, in some cases, the sterilization of seeds. We've had difficulty getting fertile seeds for micropropagation. I see this impact tending to become stronger and stronger. This can be overcome, as long as there are regeneration processes, with planting or recovery of the plants,” explains Priscila.
Priscila Almeida says that socioeconomics is the most viable economic matrix for minimizing the impacts of climate change - Guilherme Gomes/ Publicity.
For the businesswoman, the socio-bioeconomy is the most viable economic matrix for minimizing the impacts of climate change.
“It involves more labor, unlike conventional technologies. You can achieve a greater distribution of income with socio-bioeconomy products than, for example, an innovation startup. The startup favors scale in terms of financial resources and capital, but the workforce and employability don't arrive at the same speed. That's why socioeconomics, as a development matrix, is one of the most important for the Amazon,” argues Priscila.
Ancestral fashion
It was based on her experiences and learning from traditional forest communities that Elijane Nogueira founded Yanciã, a micro-enterprise focused on handmade fashion items. She has a degree in law, with a specialization in criminal sciences, but decided to make the transition to the environmental area, bringing with her actions and studies on issues of social vulnerability.
“I started this fashion research with socio-environmental responsibility. And I started looking at my region, reflecting a lot on climate change and how we were all being affected. I wanted to develop a fashion culture based on our territories,” explains Elijan.
The Yanciã brand was registered in 2021, after years of research into connecting the environmental agenda with a fashion business. The company's first physical space opened in August 2024, in a cultural center called Casarão de Ideias.
The business is not a reseller of Amazonian materials. It obtains the finished products from associations that collect and modify the raw materials. The work involves research and an exchange of knowledge with the artisans. Among the materials used are tucum fibers and açaí seeds. Elijane curates the process, of selecting and producing handicrafts that become fashion collections.
“Some of these materials come from ancestral knowledge, from indigenous communities who already used them for their subsistence. I curated a collection to understand the materials and where they came from. Who the communities were, how they were collected, and how they were processed,” explains Elijane. “I try to honor this traditional knowledge of women from traditional peoples who, for a long time, were mistreated, marginalized, and made invisible by the craft market itself. They often didn't even receive credit for their work.”
Series on the Amazon
The report is part of the Amazon Trails series, which opens the year of the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), to be held in Belém in November this year. In the stories published by Agência Brasil, the people of the Amazon and those directly involved in defending the forest discuss the impacts of climate change and the responses to deal with it.
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