Among the mapped products are, for example, medicinal mint tea, sucupira seeds, artisanal aloe vera pills, umburana seeds, extra virgin oil and babassu flour, Brazil nut kernels and andiroba repellent.
The environmental crisis we are experiencing has posed new challenges and this challenge of sustainable development is placed exactly at our central point when we value the products of sociobiodiversity, when we value the traditional populations that are the great protectors of our biomes, says the coordinator of Institutional Relations at Fiocruz, Valcler Rangel.
According to ArticulaFito’s technical and executive coordinator, Joseane Carvalho Costa, one of the goals of the mapping is to ensure that everyone involved in this chain, from producers to end consumers, appreciates and understands each of the stages. When we consume the nut oil product in the beauty clinic, we need to know how much inequality and labor exploitation are embedded in this product. It’s a shift in the way we consume, this new way of changing this pattern of consumption relationships.
Mapping
Between 2015 and 2018, ArticulaFito held a series of workshops with civil society actors, government representatives, universities, and other stakeholders to map the value chains of these plants with phytotherapeutic, cosmetic, and food potential. The inputs, collection methods, processing, market, and consumption were identified, as well as weaknesses, potential, bottlenecks, and challenges.
The main challenges include staff training, product compliance with health standards, communication and ways to expand sales. Deforestation is a factor that impacts production. Of the 26 plant species, 18 are extractive and eight are cultivated.
Most of these extractive products are becoming extinct, there are problems with deforestation, fires, all of this is generating serious production problems. Proper management is necessary for us to overcome and reverse the situation, says Joseane.
Cledeneuza Oliveira, a coconut breaker and member of the Interstate Movement of Babaçu Coconut Breakers, is one of the workers directly impacted. We feel threatened because the regions where there are more coconut breakers are where there are more farmers and landowners who forbid us from collecting coconuts, and they cut down the babaçu palm groves closest to the villages, which makes our production difficult, she says. One year we harvest more products, and the next, they have already killed the palm trees. It is something that saddens us, because we have a good production.
Programs
ArticulaFito foresees a series of actions to preserve production and encourage these markets. Among them are training, research and development, exchange of experiences, fairs and events for commercial promotion, institutional arrangements, including with the Unified Health System (SUS) and technical support for mapped enterprises.
In 2019, Mapa launched the Bioeconomia Brasil – Sociobiodiversidade program, with the aim of organizing public policies and carrying out actions to strengthen production chains that use natural resources in a sustainable way.
The General Coordinator of Extractivism at Mapa, Marco Aurélio Pavarino, highlights, for example, the National Program for Strengthening Family Farming Bioeconomy, a line of credit aimed at financing family farmers and rural producers to invest in the use of renewable energy technologies, environmental technologies, water storage, small hydroelectric uses, forestry and the adoption of conservationist practices and correction of soil acidity and fertility, aiming at its recovery and improvement of productive capacity.
According to the 2017 Agricultural Census by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), 77% of rural establishments in Brazil are classified as family farms, which is equivalent to 3.9 million establishments. They occupy 23%, or 89 million hectares, of the total area occupied by rural establishments in the country. Together, they account for 67% of the personnel employed in agriculture and are responsible for 23% of production. Among the mapped products are, for example, medicinal mint tea, sucupira seeds, artisanal aloe vera pills, umburana seeds, extra virgin oil and babassu flour, Brazil nut kernels and andiroba repellent.
The environmental crisis we are experiencing has posed new challenges and this challenge of sustainable development is placed exactly at our central point when we value the products of sociobiodiversity, when we value the traditional populations that are the great protectors of our biomes, says the coordinator of Institutional Relations at Fiocruz, Valcler Rangel.
According to ArticulaFito’s technical and executive coordinator, Joseane Carvalho Costa, one of the goals of the mapping is to ensure that everyone involved in this chain, from producers to end consumers, appreciates and understands each of the stages. When we consume the nut oil product in the beauty clinic, we need to know how much inequality and labor exploitation are embedded in this product. It’s a shift in the way we consume, this new way of changing this pattern of consumption relationships.
Mapping
Between 2015 and 2018, ArticulaFito held a series of workshops with civil society actors, government representatives, universities, and other stakeholders to map the value chains of these plants with phytotherapeutic, cosmetic, and food potential. The inputs, collection methods, processing, market, and consumption were identified, as well as weaknesses, potential, bottlenecks, and challenges.
The main challenges include staff training, product compliance with health standards, communication and ways to expand sales. Deforestation is a factor that impacts production. Of the 26 plant species, 18 are extractive and eight are cultivated.
Most of these extractive products are becoming extinct, there are problems with deforestation, fires, all of this is generating serious production problems. Proper management is necessary for us to overcome and reverse the situation, says Joseane.
Cledeneuza Oliveira, a coconut breaker and member of the Interstate Movement of Babaçu Coconut Breakers, is one of the workers directly impacted. We feel threatened because the regions where there are more coconut breakers are where there are more farmers and landowners who forbid us from collecting coconuts, and they cut down the babaçu palm groves closest to the villages, which makes our production difficult, she says. One year we harvest more products, and the next, they have already killed the palm trees. It is something that saddens us, because we have a good production.
Programs
ArticulaFito foresees a series of actions to preserve production and encourage these markets. Among them are training, research and development, exchange of experiences, fairs and events for commercial promotion, institutional arrangements, including with the Unified Health System (SUS) and technical support for mapped enterprises.
In 2019, Mapa launched the Bioeconomia Brasil – Sociobiodiversidade program, with the aim of organizing public policies and carrying out actions to strengthen production chains that use natural resources in a sustainable way.
The General Coordinator of Extractivism at Mapa, Marco Aurélio Pavarino, highlights, for example, the National Program for Strengthening Family Farming Bioeconomy, a line of credit aimed at financing family farmers and rural producers to invest in the use of renewable energy technologies, environmental technologies, water storage, small hydroelectric uses, forestry and the adoption of conservationist practices and correction of soil acidity and fertility, aiming at its recovery and improvement of productive capacity.
According to the 2017 Agricultural Census by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), 77% of rural establishments in Brazil are classified as family farms, which is equivalent to 3.9 million establishments. They occupy 23%, or 89 million hectares, of the total area occupied by rural establishments in the country. Together, they account for 67% of the personnel employed in agriculture and are responsible for 23% of production. oundation (Fiocruz) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply (Mapa) presented today (24) the results of the largest diagnosis ever carried out in Brazil on the productive potential of medicinal, aromatic, spice and food plants. In total, the value chains of 26 plant species were mapped. For each of them, the producers, the forms of product distribution, potential consumers, in addition to the main challenges and ways to improve production were identified.
We believe that this could be a field that generates a lot of income for our farmers, says the Secretary of Family Farming and Cooperatives at MAPA, Fernando Schwanke. Brazil is a major importer of oils from other countries when we have family farmers who can produce many of these plants and add value for themselves and for society as a whole, he adds.
The mapping is part of the ArticulaFito Project - Value Chains in Medicinal Plants and the results are available on social media . The research was presented at the online seminar Value Chains in Medicinal Plants and the 2030 Agenda: contributions of sociobiodiversity for reflection on new production models for the preservation of life and health on the planet, which can be accessed in full on the internet .
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