Projects

O projeto Tucum é uma iniciativa da ONG’s Adelco e do Esplar em parceria com o Movimento Indígena do Ceará e financiamento da União Europeia.

O projeto será realizado do período de 2021-2024 e alcança os 15 povos indígenas de 18 municípios cearenses: Aquiraz, Aratuba, Boa Viagem, Canindé, Caucaia, Carnaubal, Crateús, Itarema, Itapipoca, Maracanaú, Monsenhor Tabosa, Novo Oriente, Pacatuba, Poranga, Quiterianópolis, São Benedito, São Gonçalo do Amarante, Tamboril.

O objetivo da ação é consolidar a autonomia político organizativa dos povos indígenas do Ceará, por meio de formações em direitos humanos, combate às violações de direitos, ativismo digital, violência contra a mulher indígena, formação de professores e de lideranças indígenas, dentre outras campanhas específicas. O projeto também trabalhará exclusivamente com mulheres indígenas, no processo de fortalecimento de suas autonomias e empoderamento. Um outro diferencial do projeto é a criação do primeiro escritório indígena de advocacia do Ceará. Nele, estarão à frente dois advogados e dois estagiários indígenas. Seu lançamento acontece no segundo semestre de 2021.

Além de todos os cuidados sanitários em tempos de pandemia, o projeto também contemplará ações específicas de combate ao coronavírus. Entre elas, formações específicas de sensibilização para a vacinação e o cumprimento dos protocolos de segurança. Uma campanha de comunicação também será realizada.

Project – Strengthening the political-organizational autonomy of indigenous peoples is undertaken in partnership with Esplar – Center of Research and Consulting, with 14 ethnicities in Ceará, established in 19 municipalities. The initiative is funded by the European Union. It contributes to strengthen the management skills and capacity of social and political intervention of both the indigenous associations and their three main representatives in Ceará: the Federation of Indigenous Peoples and Organizations of Ceará (Fepoince), the Organization of Indigenous Teachers of Ceará (Oprince), the Indigenous Women Network of Ceará (Amice), and the Commission of Indigenous Youth of Ceará (Cojice).  

Urucum is based on local conferences of indigenist politics, where the collective voices gathered with different ethnicities and were able to overcome the challenges and conflicts for the sake of the highest good of the indigenous cause.   To do so, we worked with 300 representative leaderships and the 14 indigenous ethnicities of Ceará.

Objectives:

• To highlight, acknowledge and publicly debate the violation of the indigenous peoples’ rights in Ceará;
• To improve the access to territorial rights and other social rights specifically aimed at indigenous peoples in Ceará, as well as the access to indigenist politics;
• To strengthen the power of the organizations representing Indigenous Peoples in Ceará both in the institutional context and in the promotion and defense of their rights and in the implementation of indigenist politics;

Fields of work: institutional strengthening, indigenous women, the gender question and the youth; affirmation of the indigenous culture.

Funding:

Maracas project – Ecological sanitation and indigenous solidarity-based tourism seeks to improve the quality of life of indigenous communities in Ceará by promoting greater and better environmental sanitation, as well as strengthening the community-based tourism.  The guidelines of such initiative are as follows: strengthening of culture and ethnic identity; self-determination and territoriality; and self-management.

We work directly with two ethnic groups, the Tremembés and the Pitaguarys.  They are 975 people and 7.667 indirect beneficiaries. Our main supporter is the Inter-American Foundation – IAF, but we also count on the following partnerships:   National Indian Foundation (Funai) and the local indigenous associations.

Objectives:

• Improvement of the environmental sanitation system through environmental education;
• Program of rainwater harvesting and storage, and ecological sanitation, both of which were implemented in the community using alternative technologies;
• Concepts, focus points and practical tools to develop the solidarity-based tourism, whose ownership is taken by the indigenous people;
• More territorial and cultural elements added to tourism products and services from indigenous communities;
• Increased income for indigenous families;
• Increased tourist flow in the indigenous communities.

Between 2015 and 2016, we have elaborated the Territorial and Environmental Management Plan (PGTAs) for the Tapeba Indigenous Lands (Caucaia – Ceará), using participatory methodologies whose priorities were the empowerment, the intercultural dialogue and the preservation of cultural values and environmental resources of the Indigenous Lands.  The National Indian Foundation (Funai) was our supporter for this action.

Our objectives:

• To bring the indigenous Tapeba group together and provide them with awareness about the suggested elaboration of a PGTA, highlighting the importance, objectives, main uses, and also about the process of elaboration and practice;
• To carry out social environmental participatory diagnoses and surveys of ethno-mapping/ethno-zoning in order to support the elaboration of the PGTA;
• To back up the process of planning and definition of priorities (action plan) established in the PGTA for Tapeba people.

Our actions have focused on:

• Awareness and mobilization;
• Participatory Diagnosis and Ethno-mapping of the indigenous land;
• Ethno-zoning of the indigenous land;
• Elaboration and validation of the PGTA for Tapeba Indigenous Land.

Results:

• Indigenous leaderships and communities have been brought together and were encouraged into active participation in the negotiation processes and collective elaboration of the PGTA;
• Survey and analysis of information considering the social, environmental and cultural contexts, as well as the organization model and the situation of natural resources in Tapeba indigenous land;
• Identification and classification of areas according to their environmental and ethnic importance, carried out using Ethno-mapping and the internal discussions of communities;
• Elaboration and validation of the set of proposed actions summarized in the Territorial and Environmental Management Plan for Tapeba Indigenous Land.

Here, we have supported the representative entities of the beneficiaries from indigenous communities and quilombolas in the elaboration of Business Plans for cooperative enterprises of family farmers.  Our public included the following cities and organizations:

Our aim has been to provide family farmers from São José Project III with service support to the cooperative enterprises according to the Business Plans established.  We carried out the project using resources from the IDB – Inter-American Development Bank, through the Agropolos Institute from Ceará, under the management of the Agrarian Development Government Department.

Our actions:

• Elaboration of a Work Plan to deliver service support;
• Participatory Diagnoses and Evaluation of Social Environmental Impact;
• Evaluation of the enterprise viability from the social, environmental, and financial perspectives;
• Engineering and/or Production Projects Approved by the beneficiaries;
• Plans of production, considering the aspects related to the management of the enterprise, the commercialization, and the environmental management plan.

Matas da Encantada project included the Plant Area of the Coastal Zone, in Aquiraz-Ce, where the community Jenipapo-Kanindé is located.  In this project, we adopted agroecological practices towards the sustainable use of the land, the protection and reforestation of native woods and Permanent Preservation Areas (APPs), as well as actions of sanitation and environmental education.  The main objective was to promote the use of techniques to encourage inhabitants to develop new attitudes towards plants, water environments and other natural resources, which eventually contributes to the conservation of water resources, the erosion reduction, the water infiltration increase, the conservation of the ground cover and, as a consequence, the stabilization of greenhouse effect gases. The sustainable use of the land anticipates the income increase and a better quality of life for the community, by converting the damaged productive areas into Agroforestry Systems (SAFs).  This action was sponsored by Petrobrás.

The integrated actions were established with the agreement of Jenipapo-Kanindé community. They were part of a systemic approach including recovery of damaged forest areas, introduction of Agroforestry Systems, recovery of ecological trails, and environmental sanitation (cisterns and bioseptic tanks).  All the activities of the project were in accordance with the guidelines and practices of Environmental Education towards the conservation of natural resources and the local biodiversity.

Matas da Encantada promoted specific actions of environmental education towards the recovery of natural resources and actions of environmental sanitation, such as the introduction of cisterns and bioseptic tanks.

The project intitled Ethnodevelopment– Indigenous Ceará, carried out by Adelco and sponsored by Petrobras, focused on improving the quality of life of indigenous communities in Ceará. It promoted the local solidarity-based economy, which reinforced the community-based tourism and promoted better conditions of food security, while respecting the varied cultures and ethnic groups.  The public that benefited from the project consists of the communities of Jenipapo-Kanindé, Tapeba, and Kanindé de Aratuba. Furthermore, there were actions of awareness in the communities of Anacé, Pitaguary, and Tremembé.

The project followed the guidelines of ethnodevelopment, which focuses on the reinforcement of culture and ethnic identity; self-determination, territoriality and self-management. These are all fundamental elements to build the social development.  These actions developed critical and methodological reflection. They highlighted the participation of women, thus helping to promote gender equality.

The project Agroforestry Systems for the recovery and protection of ecosystems in the Jenipapo-Kanindé indigenous territory took place between 2013 and 2016. It targeted the Plant Area found at the Coast of Jenipapo-Kanindé indigenous community, in Aquiraz-Ce.  Among the actions, we can highlight the adoption of agroecological practices to use the land, trainings on environmental education, protection of native forests and Permanent Preservation Areas (APPs). It aimed at helping to preserve areas of good ground cover, which promotes the stabilization of greenhouse effect gases, the increase of income, and the improvement of the indigenous community quality of life.  The project was carried out by Adelco, with the financial support from the Society, Population and Nature Institute (ISPN), through the Program of Small Eco-social Projects (PPP-Ecos).

The actions developed by the project were: trainings on environmental education, planting trees and crops together and other agroecological techniques, social-environmental diagnosis, conservation of biodiversity, recovery of ecological trails, training for guides, introducing the selective waste collection, and creating an environmental acquis for the Indigenous Museum.  Such actions had an impact on:

• The transformation of five hectares of plantation into Agroforestry Systems (SAF);
• Jenipapo-Kanindé community adopting agroecological practices and getting committed with the environment, which has created a change in culture, which will eventually promote the conservation and better use of the environment;
• The reinforcement of the agricultural production, ensuring increased food security;
• The reinforcement of community-based tourism and, therefore, the increase of income;
• A better management both of natural resources and their use by the community.

The project was performed to benefit families from the municipalities of Frutuoso Gomes and Portalegre – RN.  We provided them with service support to promote ecological/environmental sanitation actions through the training and introduction of the bioseptic tanks technology.  We worked with 62 families with the support and partnership of the Brazilian Agro-Forestry Research Institute (Embrapa – Fortaleza/CE).

Actions performed:

• Diagnosis of families and areas;
• Screening and registering families;
• Beneficiaries training;
• Purchase of material and input products;
• Introduction and monitoring of 62 sceptic tanks in two towns.

The project named Tribos das Águas – Protecting Tapeba people’s water and the water environments promoted the environmental awareness towards the water conservation and the water ecosystems in the Indigenous Tapeba Territory to protect the biodiversity and ensure the environmental services that these ecosystems provide, thus constituting a measure of adaptation to the climate change.  Our main objective was to improve the quality of water resources and the quality of life of the indigenous population from the municipality of Caucaia – CE, by introducing family systems of ecological sanitation to ensure the sustainable offer of water in adequate quantity and quality for use.

The public that benefited from it were the 12 Tapeba communities from Caucaia-CE. Adelco coordinated the project with funding from Petrobrás and the support from the Community Association of Tabepa Indigenous peoples – Acita.

The actions performed were:

• Introduction of a program of harvesting, storage and management of rainwater and low-cost ecological sanitation in 12 indigenous communities of Tapeba territory;
• Social-environmental participatory diagnosis of the use and land occupation in Tapeba territory.
• Monitoring of surface and ground water, by using new technologies of rational use of water resources.
• Upgrading cultural facilities (Tapeba Cultural Center and Wooden Leg Chief Memorial) to incorporate the environmental aspects concerning the use and conservation of water and water ecosystems in Tapeba territory.

The program focused on housing improvement and income generation by enabling the availability of resources to reform the low-income population’s houses. It also reinforced the community associations and improved health and hygiene conditions.  Furthermore, the program encouraged the creation of solidary groups to help those who could not afford labor costs.

We worked with the Tapeba community, from the municipality of Caucaia and the Alto Alegre community, in Maracanaú-Ce. Our supporters and partners were: the French institution Abbé Pierre Foundation and the Community Association of Tapeba people – Acita.

Our major objective was to reduce poverty, help people to build autonomy and create better life conditions, using a sustainable economic development process.  Check the performed actions:

• Training on management and microcredit for the productive microcredit groups;
• Concession of productive and housing credit to Tapeba families;
• Reinforcement of the Relations among Ethnic groups;
• Silkscreen and informatics course;
• Improvement of handicraft techniques;
• Course of museum guide techniques and memorial management.

The Ayty project – Tapeba Community-based Tourism strategically focused on supporting the Community-based tourism initiative in the municipality of Caucaia-CE, with actions to reinforce tourist activity in the community combined with a wider promotion and improvement not only of the conditions of handicraft commercialization but also of the community-based tourism.

The benefited public were the families from 17 communities in the Tapeba Indigenous Land.  For this project, we had the support and partnership from the Ministry of Tourism and the Community Association of Tapeba People – Acita.  With this project, we raised the awareness of the communities regarding their potential to develop community-based tourism. Then, we carried out a participatory diagnosis of the territories under the perspective of the community-based tourism and elaborated a Tapeba plan of Community Tourism Development.

Inhuçu project – Reinforcing the skills to manage economic, cultural and indigenous identity-related projects towards the Tapeba ethnodevelopment aimed at improving the handicraft quality, the reinforcement of the ability to manage economic and cultural projects, the development of environmental awareness and the basic skills to grow crops and handle the native tree species, the organization of exchange events, cultural reinforcement and development of the local cuisine practices.

The project worked with families from the communities in the Tapeba Indigenous Land, in Caucaia-CE, and had the support from the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA) and the partnership of the Community Association of Tapeba people – Acita.  Our objective was to reinforce the ability of the organizations and Tapeba groups to manage projects towards a sustainable production and commercialization of the Tapeba handicraft along with the reinforcement of their identity as a community.

The actions performed by the Inhuçu Project were:

• Training the indigenous people on handicraft using different materials (coconut, clay, and wood);
• Training the indigenous people on the elaboration, search, and management of projects;
• Workshops on building cisterns and green cesspits (septic system)
• Training indigenous people to plant crops and handle the native tree species;
• Organization of exchange events and cultural reinforcement.

The project aimed at helping the Tapeba indigenous community in the search for economic support through the generation of jobs and income, by consolidating and disseminating their cultural identity and selling their handicraft production.

We worked with the families from 17 communities of the Tapeba Indigenous land, with the support and partnership of the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA) and the Community Association of Tapeba People – Acita.  Our objective was to promote actions of technical assistance and rural extension by training the productive groups of Tapeba people to introduce, operate and consolidate a handicraft sales system using the electronic commerce.