The Casa Socioambiental Fund today launched its seventh call of projects from 2023. This time the coverage area focuses on MATOPIBA region – which includes part of the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia. Among the main objectives and support axes of this call are the institutional strengthening, actions for governance and territorial defense, in addition to the development of economic actions that promote the appreciation of the standing forest and the generation of income.

The MATOPIBA region is characterized by being the largest territorial extension in the world impacted by the expansion of monocultures and extensive livestock farming, which has been causing great pressure on the Cerrado and the communities that live there. There are also large infrastructure projects such as irrigation, to meet the demand of the agricultural sector, as well as projects for the production of wind and solar energy, which have been implemented without respect for the territorial and socio-environmental rights of communities.

Support (financial or institutional), to the extent that each group is capable of managing, has demonstrated great power to local strengthening and transformation, expanding the capacity of communities to defend their territories and transforming communities that have an entrepreneurial vocation into important local food producers, generating income and enabling the protection and recovery of degraded territories based on traditional wisdom and the use of agroecological practices. Despite there being enormous socio-environmental conflicts, local communities are also a huge power.In this context, the Casa Fund will support 34 projects worth up to R$40 thousand reais each. The total value of this call is R$1,360,000.00. The priority audience are community associations that work with a socio-environmental focus and traditional communities located in MATOPIBA.