Project in process | Community Development
Castanheiros do Unini
Location
Reserva Extrativista Rio Unini (RESEX), Jaú National Park and Development Reserve, located in the municipality of Barcelos/AM.
The Unini River is situated within the municipality of Barcelos and is enveloped by Conservation Units. Additionally, it is an integral part of the Lower Rio Negro Mosaic of Protected Areas, the Central Amazon Corridor, and the Central Amazon Biosphere Reserve.
Established in 2010, the recognition aimed to implement governance within this collection of protected areas and to foster the appreciation of the region's services, products and knowledge, the Baixo Rio Negro Mosaic comprises an area of 7.5 million hectares where 1.8 million people and another 80 communities made up of riverside and indigenous people.
Species: Amazon Chestnut (Bertholletia excelsa)
A native amazon tree, also known as Castanha-do-pará or castanha-do-brasil. Brazil is currently the second largest producer of the product in the world, behind Bolivia. During the harvest, groups known as “castanheiros” go up the river to the chestnut groves to collect the ripe urchins from the ground, the fruit where the chestnuts are. They are carried in baskets on their backs to the “breakers”, places where they will be broken to extract the seed.
With bags or cans full of nuts, they begin the journey back to distribute the raw material to the processing plant. There, post-harvest involves drying the nuts, storing and transporting them for sale.
Community history
The project beneficiaries encompass men, women, and young extractivists affiliated with the Mixed Agroextractive Cooperative of Rio Unini – COOMARU. They engage in collecting or participating in the processing of Amazon Brazil nuts, along with managing pirarucu, cassava flour, bananas, and other biodiversity-based products.
COOMARU is the organization that manages the Reference Unit - Central Agroextractivist of the Union of Residents of Rio Unini – CAUMORU, Amazon Castanha processing plant located in the community of Patauá, RESEX of Rio Unini. It was created to facilitate the economic development of the Unini River, promoting the river's economic activities.
Historical impacts:
2007 - Construction of the Castanha da Amazônia processing plant, in 2007 and organization of the Unini castanheiros trees in the community of Patauá, RESEX of the Unini river.
2012 - Creation of the Rio Unini Mixed Agroextractive Cooperative – COOMARU.
2021 - Formalization of Boticário’s support for the “Castanheiros do Unini” project.
The project
The main goal of the "Castanheiros do Unini" project is to further develop CAUMORU, the processing plant for Amazonian Chestnuts (Bertholletia excelsa), by expanding production capacity and increasing the demand for nuts. This expansion aims to add value to the final product. Consequently, the project is expected to enhance income by benefiting cooperative members and agroextractivists engaged in the Amazonian Chestnut trade. It will also contribute to territorial management and environmental conservation in one of the planet's most biodiverse areas.
100
families of extractivists who live in the riverbeds of the Unini River, benefited from the project’s actions.
80%
of MAPA's requirements met for plants processing socio-biodiversity products, opening new markets for the cooperative's products.
1 ton.
ton. of Amazon Brazil nuts in almonds produced.
50
Acquisition of raw chestnuts from around 50 chestnut trees.
3
cycles of 10 days operated at CAUMORU, supporting the movement and stay of cooperative members in the plant location.
Project impacts
Investment in the Amazon Chestnut production chain will fortify economic activity in the region, leading to an enhancement in family income and the preservation of traditional activities among cooperative members and agroextractivists. Moreover, it will also positively impact the territorial management of the lower Rio Negro region and the environmental conservation of one of the most biodiverse areas on the planet.
Project activities
Improvement of the physical and productive infrastructure of CAUMORU (processing plant)
By investing in the structural development of CAUMORU, the project aims to fulfill MAPA's requirements for socio-biodiversity products. This effort will open avenues for the cooperative to access external markets, thereby increasing profit margins for its members. Additionally, the implementation of seals and certifications, such as organic production, will enhance the final product's value due to its market appeal.
Support COOMARU in the year's harvest, through working capital for the acquisition of raw materials and processing of Amazon Nuts
Presently constrained by a lack of working capital, the processing plant can only acquire and process a portion of the raw nuts produced by chestnut growers, leading the remainder to be obtained by intermediaries. Assistance for the 2022/23 harvest aims to sustain plant operations, optimize its capacity, ensure income for chestnut grower families and cooperative members, and consolidate the production and processing of Amazon Castanha within the Negro River's vicinity, bolstering the regional economy.
Strengthen the administrative, accounting and marketing management of COOMARU (cooperative)
COOMARU presently utilizes FVA offices' infrastructure for its management tasks. The objective is to sustain this process by dedicating one (01) technical administrator and one (01) accountant hired as a service provider. This commitment seeks to ensure that COOMARU's administrative, accounting, and commercial operations remain updated and compliant with prevailing laws and regulations.
Realização
Grupo Boticário
One of the largest beauty groups in the world, Grupo Boticário is a Brazilian company present in 50 countries. He 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
Fundação Vitória Amazônica
Non-profit civil society organization that has been working for 30 years with socio-environmental innovation on different scales in the Amazon. It develops projects in the areas of research, social organization, education, socioeconomic development, and public policies, focusing on solving local and regional problems through sustainable initiatives, aimed at building an alternative development model in the Amazônia region.
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.
