Research partnership for an agroecology-based solidarity economy in Bolivia and Brazil
Lead Research Organisation:
The Open University
Department Name: Faculty of Arts and Social Sci (FASS)
Abstract
Objectives:
The partnership combines three research teams to deepen their interdisciplinary skills for participatory action research with community organisations developing agroecological innovation as a crucial means towards sustainable, socially equitable development. The three research teams are: Open University, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP in São Paolo, Brazil) and the Comunidad de Estudios Jaina (CEJ) in southern Bolivia. Their partnership aims to:
- identify and strengthen community capacities for an agroecology-based solidarity economy, in response to needs and demands of traditional lower-income communities; and.
- develop, combine, test and refine culturally-grounded research methods for making those community capacities more visible, as a basis to strengthen them through multi-stakeholder knowledge co-production.
Integrated expertise:
Within the broad area of agri-food sustainability, the three research teams bring diverse expertise (methodological, thematic and disciplinary) which will be integrated through transdisciplinary research. This addresses real-world problems in order to overcome the distance between specialized and lay knowledges, as well as between research and policy. The results will present an innovative methodology in the project's handbook and final report.
Activities:
Each research team will form an action-research group with members of relevant communities; some already agreed to participate in the project. They will plan a series of three workshops to be held in each case-study area: the Valle Central (Bolivia), Brazil's Litoral Norte; and Brazil's Baixada Santista. In each area, the third workshop will attract many more participants to discuss the results, the project's indicators of success and practical use of the research method.
Meanwhile the Latin American and International Advisory Panels will maintain contact with wider networks, especially the FAO's agroecology programme.
Final project-wide conference will present the draft outputs. This conference will bring together representatives of community participants, support organisations, public authorities (local, state and Federal Ministries), other Federal organisations and Latin American contributors to the FAO's agroecology programme.
Project outputs will emphasise methods relevant to agroecological innovation of traditional communities for a solidarity economy. They will be designed as media tools to gain impact locally, regionally or internationally.
- Methodology handbook for practitioners.
- Report from each pilot case-study (x 3).
- Report on the novel research methodology demonstrating its implementation in practice through the pilot case studies, lessons from them and wider implications (in English).
- Films on the communities' knowledge co-production processes, to be commissioned from - professional film-makers. Bilingual subtitles will be added.
- Summaries: The printed outputs will be double-sided A3 brochures summarising each of the longer outputs above, including a bar code for easily downloading them from the project website. These will be printed (3000 copies) for wide distribution at numerous relevant events in Latin America.
- Papers will be presented at numerous professional conferences and published in academic journals.
All these will be in Spanish and/or Portuguese, except that the longer final report and its summary will be in English.
All will be available on the project's website, which will continue long after the project.
Impacts: The project will have several impacts, in particular: Community organisations' capacities will be enhanced through the research method. Wide participation of their networks will enrich multi-stakeholder knowledge-exchange (diálogos de saberes). Lower-income agroecological communities will demand support measures enhancing their capacities for an agroecology-based solidarity economy.
The partnership combines three research teams to deepen their interdisciplinary skills for participatory action research with community organisations developing agroecological innovation as a crucial means towards sustainable, socially equitable development. The three research teams are: Open University, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP in São Paolo, Brazil) and the Comunidad de Estudios Jaina (CEJ) in southern Bolivia. Their partnership aims to:
- identify and strengthen community capacities for an agroecology-based solidarity economy, in response to needs and demands of traditional lower-income communities; and.
- develop, combine, test and refine culturally-grounded research methods for making those community capacities more visible, as a basis to strengthen them through multi-stakeholder knowledge co-production.
Integrated expertise:
Within the broad area of agri-food sustainability, the three research teams bring diverse expertise (methodological, thematic and disciplinary) which will be integrated through transdisciplinary research. This addresses real-world problems in order to overcome the distance between specialized and lay knowledges, as well as between research and policy. The results will present an innovative methodology in the project's handbook and final report.
Activities:
Each research team will form an action-research group with members of relevant communities; some already agreed to participate in the project. They will plan a series of three workshops to be held in each case-study area: the Valle Central (Bolivia), Brazil's Litoral Norte; and Brazil's Baixada Santista. In each area, the third workshop will attract many more participants to discuss the results, the project's indicators of success and practical use of the research method.
Meanwhile the Latin American and International Advisory Panels will maintain contact with wider networks, especially the FAO's agroecology programme.
Final project-wide conference will present the draft outputs. This conference will bring together representatives of community participants, support organisations, public authorities (local, state and Federal Ministries), other Federal organisations and Latin American contributors to the FAO's agroecology programme.
Project outputs will emphasise methods relevant to agroecological innovation of traditional communities for a solidarity economy. They will be designed as media tools to gain impact locally, regionally or internationally.
- Methodology handbook for practitioners.
- Report from each pilot case-study (x 3).
- Report on the novel research methodology demonstrating its implementation in practice through the pilot case studies, lessons from them and wider implications (in English).
- Films on the communities' knowledge co-production processes, to be commissioned from - professional film-makers. Bilingual subtitles will be added.
- Summaries: The printed outputs will be double-sided A3 brochures summarising each of the longer outputs above, including a bar code for easily downloading them from the project website. These will be printed (3000 copies) for wide distribution at numerous relevant events in Latin America.
- Papers will be presented at numerous professional conferences and published in academic journals.
All these will be in Spanish and/or Portuguese, except that the longer final report and its summary will be in English.
All will be available on the project's website, which will continue long after the project.
Impacts: The project will have several impacts, in particular: Community organisations' capacities will be enhanced through the research method. Wide participation of their networks will enrich multi-stakeholder knowledge-exchange (diálogos de saberes). Lower-income agroecological communities will demand support measures enhancing their capacities for an agroecology-based solidarity economy.
Planned Impact
The project will have benefits for several groups, as follows:
Lower-income traditional communities: They will benefit from making more visible and strengthening their capacities for an agroecology-based solidarity economy, responding to demands of lower-income traditional communities (especially smallholders, indigenous and women). The results will showcase historical-cultural agro-food legacies which are being (or could be) extended for enhancing community cohesion, producers' livelihoods, short food-supply chains and nutritional quality. For all those aims, the project will identify exemplary practices for knowledge co-production between agroecological communities and external expert bodies. Such communities will have stronger means of gaining, shaping and selectively incorporating such expertise. The project's methods will strengthen and extend exemplary practices of multi-stakeholder knowledge co-production for agroecological innovation. The benefits will stimulate community demands for policy support measures best building their capacities for an agroecology-based solidarity economy.
Support organisations: Conversely, when designing assistance for traditional communities, support organisations will better understand how to engage with communities' aims, knowledges and cultural values. Such bodies include agricultural extension services, NGOs, charitable foundations, academic institutions, etc. At a global level the FAO's agroecology programme will have a stronger basis for support measures and for guidance to analogous efforts by governments. Such organisations can better provide measures which strengthen capacities of traditional communities for knowledge co-production.
Policymakers (from local, regional and national bodies) will better understand how to design support measures to facilitate community capacities for an agroecology-based solidarity economy, as a basis for improving sustainable agro-food production and nutritional quality in socially equitable ways. Relevant policy area include: public procurement, agriculture, agricultural extension, rural development and social development.
Organisations of the three research teams: Those organisations (OU, UNESP, CEJ) will gain capacity for transdisciplinary participatory action-research (PAR) around culturally-grounded methods with community organisations in Latin America. This methodological advance, alongside greater cohesion amongst the three teams, will provide a strong basis for further collaboration through joint grant proposals with more research teams.
Other researchers: The results will inspire and inform PAR by other researchers with analogous communities. Both groups will gain insights about PAR with lower-income traditional communities in the global South, especially Latin America. They will better understand culturally-grounded methods resonating with people's experiences in specific localities, as a basis to take up the project's methods.
Wider rural communities: The results will be helpful for worldwide efforts at strengthening capacities to extend an agroecology-based solidarity economy. Such capacities will enhance livelihoods, nutritional benefits, natural resources, environments, and thus human welfare. Such improvements can build community sovereignty over natural and human resources, as a crucial means towards sustainable development.
Project's partnership: Through those processes the partnership will build its own capacity to carry out interdisciplinary participatory action research (PAR) along several lines - among the three national teams (in UK, Bolivia and Brazil), between the Latin American teams and the community participants, and amongst them all. Their capacity will be enhanced through culturally-grounded research methods for knowledge co-production with traditional rural communities. Through mentoring by UNESP, the project will build capacity of early-career (and community) researchers.
Lower-income traditional communities: They will benefit from making more visible and strengthening their capacities for an agroecology-based solidarity economy, responding to demands of lower-income traditional communities (especially smallholders, indigenous and women). The results will showcase historical-cultural agro-food legacies which are being (or could be) extended for enhancing community cohesion, producers' livelihoods, short food-supply chains and nutritional quality. For all those aims, the project will identify exemplary practices for knowledge co-production between agroecological communities and external expert bodies. Such communities will have stronger means of gaining, shaping and selectively incorporating such expertise. The project's methods will strengthen and extend exemplary practices of multi-stakeholder knowledge co-production for agroecological innovation. The benefits will stimulate community demands for policy support measures best building their capacities for an agroecology-based solidarity economy.
Support organisations: Conversely, when designing assistance for traditional communities, support organisations will better understand how to engage with communities' aims, knowledges and cultural values. Such bodies include agricultural extension services, NGOs, charitable foundations, academic institutions, etc. At a global level the FAO's agroecology programme will have a stronger basis for support measures and for guidance to analogous efforts by governments. Such organisations can better provide measures which strengthen capacities of traditional communities for knowledge co-production.
Policymakers (from local, regional and national bodies) will better understand how to design support measures to facilitate community capacities for an agroecology-based solidarity economy, as a basis for improving sustainable agro-food production and nutritional quality in socially equitable ways. Relevant policy area include: public procurement, agriculture, agricultural extension, rural development and social development.
Organisations of the three research teams: Those organisations (OU, UNESP, CEJ) will gain capacity for transdisciplinary participatory action-research (PAR) around culturally-grounded methods with community organisations in Latin America. This methodological advance, alongside greater cohesion amongst the three teams, will provide a strong basis for further collaboration through joint grant proposals with more research teams.
Other researchers: The results will inspire and inform PAR by other researchers with analogous communities. Both groups will gain insights about PAR with lower-income traditional communities in the global South, especially Latin America. They will better understand culturally-grounded methods resonating with people's experiences in specific localities, as a basis to take up the project's methods.
Wider rural communities: The results will be helpful for worldwide efforts at strengthening capacities to extend an agroecology-based solidarity economy. Such capacities will enhance livelihoods, nutritional benefits, natural resources, environments, and thus human welfare. Such improvements can build community sovereignty over natural and human resources, as a crucial means towards sustainable development.
Project's partnership: Through those processes the partnership will build its own capacity to carry out interdisciplinary participatory action research (PAR) along several lines - among the three national teams (in UK, Bolivia and Brazil), between the Latin American teams and the community participants, and amongst them all. Their capacity will be enhanced through culturally-grounded research methods for knowledge co-production with traditional rural communities. Through mentoring by UNESP, the project will build capacity of early-career (and community) researchers.
Organisations
- The Open University (Lead Research Organisation)
- Sao Paulo State University (Collaboration)
- Observatório de Territórios Sustentáveis e Saudáveis da Bocaina (OTSS) (Collaboration)
- Comunidad de Estudio Jaina (Collaboration)
- Observatory of Sustainable Territories (Project Partner)
- Community of Jaina Studies (Project Partner)
Publications
Levidow L,
(2022)
EcoSol-agroecología construyen circuitos cortos solidarios por proximidades societales: experiencias en Brasil y Bolivia
in A Revista das ITCPs (Incubadoras Tecnológicas de Cooperativas Populares),
Levidow L.
(2021)
Agroecological practices as territorial development: an analytical schema from Brazilian agroforestry case studies
in Journal of Peasant Studies
Levidow L
(2021)
Agroecological innovation constructing socionatural order for social transformation: two case studies in Brazil
in Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology and Society
Levidow L
(2022)
EcoSol-agroecology networks respond to the Covid-19 crisis: building an economy of proximity in Brazil's Baixada Santista region
in The Journal of Peasant Studies
GALLO, Edmundo, Et Al.
(2021)
Territórios Sustentáveis e Saudáveis: experiências de saúde ambiental territorializadas
| Title | "Agroecologia, Pesca e Economia Solidária na Bocaina em tempos de Covid-19" |
| Description | Film about how EcoSol-agroecology networks responded to the Covid-19 pandemic in the Serra de Bocaina, Brazil. It was produced by the OTSS, the AgroEcos partner in that region. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | It has been widely screened online. |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjgOuo9Nfg4 |
| Title | "Baixada Santista, Brasil: redes solidarias agroecológicos" |
| Description | Film about how EcoSol-agroecology networks responded to the Covid-19 pandemic in the Baixada Santista. It was produced by UNESP, the AgroEcos partner in that region. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | It was launched at an in-person workshop hosted by UNESP and generated a strong emotional identification among attendees. |
| URL | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcyIcrdenmM&t=15s |
| Title | 'Projeto Povos - Cuidar é Resistir' (To Care is to Resist) film series |
| Description | In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Fórum de Comunidades Tradicionais (FCT) launched a campaign,'Cuidar é Resistir' (To Care is to Resist). It produced numerous short films under the general title 'Projeto Povos - Cuidar é Resistir'. These depict how traditional communities imposed their own quarantine for collective self-protection, while sustaining themselves through various means of agroecological self-sufficiency and mutual aid. Each film has a specific topic such as: solidarity networks, agroecological production methods, artisanal fishing, women's leadership, community-based tourism, etc. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Impact | The online film series spread the knowledge-exchange process among traditional communities, as well as publicising this process to diverse audiences throughout Brazil and Latin America. |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa1FoiFcayzJgGSRLMqV3nA |
| Description | Our project title, 'Solidarity Economy based on agroecology in Bolívia and Brazil', refers to a decade-long convergence between agroecological production methods and solidarity economy (economia solidária or EcoSol). We call this convergence EcoSol-agroecology networks, meaning that the various initiatives stimulate and depend on multi-actor solidaristic networks. Together they build short-supply chains, called circuitos curtos in Latin America, especially for agroecological products in our study. As our project's short title, AgroEcos indicates that such practices have echoes through replication across space and time, as explained on the website, https://projetoagroecos.wixsite.com/meusite The project originally planned to investigate two main questions: ? How do EcoSol-agroecology networks develop collective capacities for solidaristic circuitos curtos? ? How can action-research help to identify and strengthen those capacities? When the Covid-19 pandemic escalated from March 2020 onwards, the project added some questions, in particular: ? How do EcoSol-agroecology networks extend or change their previous practices? ? How do they overcome obstacles, construct learning and conceive new strategies? Findings: Here is the Summary section of the overall final report, August 2022, which has much more detail, https://3d33eb12-f421-47a1-a45f-76acc45bd2d6.filesusr.com/ugd/5872ec_a36390e0a69b4ac4b6cfc48ee50645c6.pdf The term 'EcoSol-agroecology' denotes a convergence between social movements for agroecological production and solidarity economy (economia solidaria in Latin America). Its networks construct short supply chains (circuitos cortos) bringing producers closer to consumers. By these means, participants seek to recover agri-food heritages, gain self-esteem for producers, raise their incomes, provide low-cost good-quality food and build solidaristic relationships. Together these practices enhance food and nutritional security. In all those ways, EcoSol-agroecology provides both a resistance and alternative to the dominant agri-food system. The AgroEcos Project investigated three main questions: How do EcoSol-agroecology networks develop collective capacities for solidaristic circuitos cortos? How can Participatory Action-Research (PAR) help to identify and strengthen those capacities? How did these processes change during the Covid-19 pandemic? Those questions were investigated in three territories (two in Brazil and one Bolivia). Each territory has a specific form of hegemonic predatory development, which provokes a territorial resistance including agroecological circuitos cortos. In the AgroEcos project, each research team had a partnership with a communitarian network for carrying out Participatory Action Research (PAR). During the Covid-19 pandemic, the networks adapted their circuitos cortos to comply with anti-virus hygiene requirements and to overcome various difficulties. Their previous collective capacities were extended to devise creative adaptations, mobilising human and material resources. Each partnership elaborated an iterative (recursive) practice linking action with research. In this way, each one could turn difficulties into opportunities for circuitos cortos in new forms. The various strategies can be understood through an analytical framework of societal proximities. Each network or initiative clarified common aims, for example, mutual aid, reciprocity, democratic self-management, socio-economic equity and food security. Their common aims have activated other proximities (organizational, institutional, cultural and geographical) as solidarity relationships. The cosmovision of Vivir Bien/Bem Viver inspires an alternative future development. EcoSol-agroecology networks make joint demands for favourable public policies and against those which threaten EcoSol-agroecology. In particular, they need public policies that can help strengthen collective capacities to construct various societal proximities. This improvement depends on cooperation with agencies and networks which already have experiences of relevant capacities. Likewise it needs to mobilise resources for a broader capacity-building. Collective capacities help to strengthen EcoSol-agroecology networks on a territorial basis, linking nearby initiatives. This basis provides a bottom-up organizational proximity, especially for making public policies accountable to the solidarity networks. In this way, a regional network can build a regionalism from below. By those means, EcoSol-agroecology networks create echoes, being replicated and extended across space and time. Hence our project's nickname AgroEcos. Collective capacities strengthen EcoSol-agroecology for resisting the dominant predatory development and creating a counter-hegemonic alternative development. |
| Exploitation Route | Our knowledge-exchange and engagement activities have spread people's experiences of EcoSol-agroecology to initiatives which were at an earlier stage of development. In this way, our AgroEcos project truly has had echoes, i.e. replicating collective capacities across time and space, as a basis to extend the circuitos cortos of the solidarity economy. These depend on the participants constructing social proximities of various kinds, constructing or reviving community bonds around shared problems and tasks. This effort should be understood as a context-specific strategy across diverse contexts. In the Brazilian case studies, an important contribution came from agricultural extensionists who had both the technical and social skills to facilitate a group learning process around agroecological productioin methods. A successful programme in EcoSol-agroecology depends on maintaining such professional expertise which can creatively engage with practitioners and their civil society support networks. All these insights have relevance to alternative agri-food networks everywhere. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy |
| URL | https://3d33eb12-f421-47a1-a45f-76acc45bd2d6.filesusr.com/ugd/5872ec_d481be82b91e48c39175dcd6b329b515.pdf |
| Description | After an overview, this section has three parts -- socioeconomic impacts, gender inequalities and environmental impacts. Each part relates the AgroEcos project to Sustainable Development Goals. OVERVIEW: The project helped EcoSol-agroecology networks to promote or facilitate several aims, namely: to enhance food and nutritional security by creating greater access to lower-cost healthy food (by contrast with ultra-processed food); to extend circuitos curtos maintaining or improving livelihoods of agroecological producers, thus helping them to stay on the land; to encourage agri-production methods which conserve and recycle natural resources; to facilitate more prominent roles for women in economic organization and policy influence, thus overcoming gender inequalities; and to continue or innovate policy support measures which generate collective capacities for those aims. Those benefits overlap with several SDGs such as: : social inclusion of otherwise marginalised groups (especially lower-income women, black or indigenous people); skills of collective democratic self-management; greater income for female producers (SDGs 1, 5, 10), in turn highlighting their contribution to family income; decent dignified work (SDG8); more healthy food for consumers at lower prices than organic products in supermarkets, alongside collective donations to vulnerable families (SDG3); greater self-confidence to share responsibility, especially through multi-actor partnerships including agroecological producers, civil society groups and municipal officers (SDG17). Such benefits arise from an overall process, rather than have specific turning points, so it would not be meaningful to specify them. Those benefits were achieved mainly through the participants' collective action in expanding their networks and gaining policy support. Such action came from capacities which were gained or strengthened through the Participatory Action Research process, including the project reports. It is difficult to know whether policymakers read the reports in any detail, though this is less important as a means to achieve improvements or prevent harmful changes. . SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACTS In our three case-study areas, EcoSol-agroecology initiatives have been combining social and economic benefits relevant to the SDGs. Solidaristic circuitos curtos bring benefits such as: social inclusion of otherwise marginalised groups (especially lower-income women, black or indigenous people); skills of collective democratic self-management; greater income for female producers (SDGs 1, 5, 10), in turn highlighting their contribution to family income; decent dignified work (SDG8); more healthy food for consumers at lower prices than organic products in supermarkets, alongside collective donations to vulnerable families (SDG3); greater self-confidence to share responsibility, especially through multi-actor partnerships including agroecological producers, civil society groups and municipal officers (SDG17). For such responses to the pandemic, below are a few examples from each case-study area and the project's role there, especially since March 2021. Baixada Santista, Brazil: The FESBS webinars publicised EcoSol-agroecology responses to the pandemic, stimulating their replication and expansion. These responses enabled artisanal producers (especially women) to maintain their incomes, enabled more consumers to buy quality food at lower prices, and enabled vulnerable families to receive donations of such food. Together these measures avoided a potentially great degradation of socio-economic conditions for lower-income people who would otherwise be marginalised. Bocaina, Litoral Norte, Brazil: Even more so than the Baixada Santista, the Bocaina had a sharp decline in economic activities, especially in order to block potential routes for the Covid 19 virus to infect traditional communities. Their Community-Based Tourism was suspended indefinitely. In response to this economic collapse, the OTSS-FCT partnership organized the campaign 'Cuidar é Resistir' (To Care is to Resist). This organized emergency food deliveries to vulnerable families, avoiding hunger and malnutrition. Local agroecological producers supplied some of the food (either at low prices or as donations) and gradually increased such supply over the past year; they benefited through greater income. Producers more generally benefited from knowledge-exchange about agroecological methods, while reviving cultivation of traditional food crops in many spaces. La Valle Central, Bolivia: As reported earlier, the Jaina-Bioferia partnership organized the Canasta Campesina Alantuya (peasant baskets), which ensured that the women producers could continue to sell their products through home deliveries. This new scheme enabled the women to maintain their income while the farmers' market was closed until mid-2021. The scheme also played a role in educating consumers about the multiple benefits of agroecological production methods, by contrast with the dominant agri-industrial system and its ultra-processed products. This helped to build a stronger consumer base for the Bioferia after the pandemic subsided in mid-2021. ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY IMPACT The AgroEcos project has focused on solidaristic circuitos cortos, which provide greater remuneration for production methods, thus incentivising them and enabling producers to gain adequate livelihoods; otherwise they would abandon agriculture or even rural areas. As exemplified by our case-study areas, EcoSol-agroecology initiatives contribute to sustainability at two levels. Firstly, their production methods recycle and thus conserve natural resources in providing food products, by contrast with the high-carbon polluting inputs of industrial agriculture. Secondly, their consumption replaces agri-industrial food sources as well as their unhealthy ultra-processed products. Agroecological alternatives promote responsible production and consumption (SDG12) and help protect life on land (SDG15). EcoSol-agroecology networks have been educating publics about these benefits and thus the need to change production-consumption patterns. Our webinars helped to link these efforts, to sharpen their strategies and to highlight them for wider publics. GENDER EQUALITY Impacts Research teams (UNESP, OTSS, Jaina): As previously reported, each team already had a woman in a senior research role before the project began. Each team had a budget for part-time early-career researchers; the selection process involved gender equality as a criterion and critical perspective. As it turned out, women have held all these posts. This gender composition provided more research opportunities for women. They contributed perspectives on gender inequalities and means to overcome them through EcoSol-agroecology initiatives. Case-study areas: As above, the project helped (indirectly or directly) to maintain EcoSol-agroecology initiatives through the pandemic period, when many people faced a potential worsening of their health and nutrition. Women play leading roles in many initiatives, especially in small-scale producers' associations for collective marketing and farmers' markets (as in the Bocaina and Valle Central). These faced the potential loss of income during the pandemic. Nevertheless creative adaptations sustained the women's previous income and public roles for women small-scale producers (SDG5), alongside the other benefits listed above. In the Baixada Santista case study, greater opportunities for circuitos curtos enabled women producers to strengthen their organisational skills as well as to maintain their income. Such women had prominent roles in the case-study webinars hosted by the AgroEcos project (as above). As a knowledge-exchange process, such webinars provided opportunities for other women to participate in strategy discussions, within and across the case studies. In the Bocaina case study, women have played leading roles in the FCT's overall activities and in specific initiatives, e.g. collective food sales to municipalities, as well as emergency food deliveries during the pandemic. However women there reportedly have not gained a greater role in organizational decision-making. As a general feature across the case studies, women still bear the greater burden of responsibility for care roles as regards social reproduction (childcare), protecting the environment and maintaining common goods |
| First Year Of Impact | 2020 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Communities and Social Services/Policy,Environment |
| Impact Types | Societal,Economic,Policy & public services |
| Description | Baixada Santista, Brazil: expanding capacities and support for circuitos curtos |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | From 2016 onwards the Federal government became increasingly hostile to the EcoSol agenda and abolished or reduced support measures. Some local authorities had formal policies for a solidarity economy but did little to implement them. Nevertheless some municipal officers in the Baixada Santista (e.g. in Peruibe and Itanhaem) helped to organise training programmes in the years before the Covid-19 pandemic. These programmes helped to build capacities for circuitos curtos, especially among women's and indigenous cooperatives. Diverse expertise was brought together into the Forum de Economia Solidária da Baixada Santista (FESBS), which then played a stronger coordination role when the pandemic intensified in February 2020. During the pandemic, municipal officers responded to requests from solidarity networks. For example, they helped producers' cooperatives to comply with the hygiene requirements and connected their products to donations for vulnerable individuals, especially by extending the school meals programme. In these ways, women's collective food marketing successfully maintained or even increased their income despite the pandemic. They also strengthened their capacities for democratic self-management of circuitos curtos. This expansion had greater opportunities to educate publics about more sustainable agri-production methods. See more details in Narrative Impact section and the project's trilingual Boletim no.1, https://3d33eb12-f421-47a1-a45f-76acc45bd2d6.filesusr.com/ugd/5872ec_70e7b1823b734e6aa49c2b8ac672392a.pdf In the run-up to the November 2020 local elections, the FESBS launched a campaign demanding that the state and local authorities implement major policy changes favourable to a solidarity economy. This effort gained significant public attention, with more opportunities to inform the public about agroecological production methods. But it is premature identify improvements in policy. Note: In the Researchfish drop-down box I have chosen the least inappropriate option: 'training practitioners'. But it would be more appropriate to say: 'Enhanced the capacity of practitioners and civil society networks'. |
| URL | https://www.facebook.com/groups/1384849224929289 |
| Description | Bocaina, Litoral Norte, Brazil: enhancing capacities of traditional communities |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Under Brazil's Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar (PNAE), OTSS has supported rural producers' networks to ensure that their agroecological products can access school meals by coordinating with the municipalities which administer the programme, and by structuring the delivery logistics for schools. For this purpose, producers depend on a civil society network of various supporters including the OTSS. OTSS has supported agroecological producers for the commercialization of their products, both within and beyond the PNAE for school meals. During the pandemic, the traditional communities decided to protect themselves from the virus by blocking outsiders. The OTSS-FCT partnership enhanced capacities of traditional communities to recover agri-food and artisanal traditions, especially food exchanges within and among those communities. Even while schools were closed during the pandemic, municipalities continued the PNAE for food distribution to families by other means, with help from the OTSS especially for traditional communities. See more details in the Narrative Impact section and the project's trilingual Boletim no.1, https://3d33eb12-f421-47a1-a45f-76acc45bd2d6.filesusr.com/ugd/5872ec_70e7b1823b734e6aa49c2b8ac672392a.pdf Note: In the Researchfish drop-down box I have chosen the least inappropriate option: 'training practitioners'. But it would be more appropriate to say: 'Enhanced the capacity of practitioners and civil society networks'. |
| URL | https://www.facebook.com/forumdecomunidadestradicionaisangraparatyubatuba/ |
| Description | Civil society influence on policy |
| Geographic Reach | South America |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or improved professional practice |
| Impact | Brazil: policy change During 2021-2022 Brazil's Federal authorities continued to degrade the support measures and institutions which had been facilitating EcoSol-agroecology activities, i.e. the convergence between solidarity economy and agroecology. By contrast, many local authorities increased and formalised their supportive policy commitments, especially responding to civil society demands (including partners in our project). Some established Advisory Panels so that that practitioners could propose specific measures for optimal benefits. Through these means, participants in the AgroEcos project have found new opportunities for policy support measures. These measures promote or facilitate several aims of EcoSol-agroecology, namely: to enhance food and nutritional security by creating greater access to lower-cost healthy food (by contrast with ultra-processed food); to extend circuitos curtos maintaining or improving livelihoods of agroecological producers, thus helping them to stay on the land; likewise to encourage agri-production methods which conserve and recycle natural resources; to facilitate more prominent roles for women in economic organization and policy influence, thus overcoming gender inequalities; and to continue or innovate policy support measures which generate collective capacities for those aims. These benefits overlap with several SDGs such as zero hunger, decent work, life on land, natural resource conservation and gender equity. Brazil: Baixada Santista In the Baixada Santista region, the EcoSol Forum promoted a manifesto of support measures and sought endorsement from local election candidates in 2021 and 2022. Partly for this reason, Advisory Panels include some activists affiliated with the EcoSol Forum. As a prominent contributor to the Forum and participant in the AgroEcos project, the Peruibe-based Women's EcoSol Union (UMPES) promoted its own EcoSol Charter, especially in the local elections. UMPES gained representatives in Advisory Panels there and in Santos, the major port city. Their role has reinforced efforts by the municipal staff members attempting to provide the most helpful measures. Through the AgroEcos project, UMPES helped to develop closer cooperative links among EcoSol initiatives. It represents especially black women, with strategies to overcome gender and racial inequalities. This is described in our blog piece, https://www.arc2020.eu/latin-america-agroecology-and-the-solidarity-economy/ The agri-extension service, Coordenadoria de Assistência Técnica Integral (CATI), has designed and promoted training for women seeking to gain livelihoods from EcoSol-agroecology. It depends on sponsorship from each municipality and mobilisation by civil society groups (such as UMPES), which came closer together through the AgroEcos project. This expands the role that they both played during the years before the Covid-19 pandemic. When the Lula Presidency began in January 2023, new appointments included Ministry chiefs supporting both agroecology and solidarity economy, thus resuming the policies from before 2016. EcoSol networks will be able to find new opportunities, thanks to capacities which they developed (or maintained) during the pandemic. Brazil: La Serra de Bocaina During 2021-2022 the Forum de Comunidades Tradicionais strengthened collective capacities for expanding agroecological production among traditional communities. These efforts also linked the extra supply with new distribution opportunities. In particular it persuaded Paraty municipality to establish Family Food Baskets for needy families, who thus securely gained more healthy food, while producers gained better livelihoods. These efforts generated extra information on land tracts suitable for agroecological production; this would substitute for imports from environmentally harmful agri-industrial methods . All this provides a step towards the Bocaina communities pursuing food self-sufficiency from local production. Bolivia: El Valle Central In both the conflicts reported here, Jaina further developed Participatory Action-Research (PAR) methods to identify agreed ways forward for peasant groups in urban and rural contexts. The methods helped to avoid harmful outcomes and to pursue alternatives bringing many benefits. Urban context: When the pandemic subsided in mid-2021, the women's Asociación Bioferia re-opened its farmers' market. But a novel conflict arose: new vendors began to occupy the spaces that some members were slow to reoccupy after the pandemic, so the Bioferia had to deploy strategies to protect its space. The team realized that the Bioferia lacked regulations to guide the assignment of stalls or the incorporation of new members. It had no legal status, nor a formal document through which the Tarija mayor's office recognized the right to the space occupied by this organization in the weekly fair. For years the Bioferia had been seeking to obtain legal status, an instrument that became necessary to face this conflict. Within the AgroEcos project, the Jaina team facilitated a participatory process to clarify the criteria for members and their products. The team applied research methods for collectively reconstructing the norms informally agreed between the member-partners for their collective functioning. In addition, workshops were held with a group of producers to reconstruct the history of the Bioferia and the rules used for its operation. This resulted in a draft Statute with Regulations, which was accepted by the Asociación Bioferia. It thereby was able to incorporate more women vendors, extend the benefits to them, and minimise conflict among them. Rural context: EcoSol-agroecology activities have faced a threat from a state policy initiative to control rural land in the Valle Central. In early 2020 there were deaths of thirty Andean condors in the Laderas Norte community, due to poor management of poison to control wild predators in the area. This problem provoked an intense discussion among the communities about possibly using the opportunity to attract external support for development projects in the territory. However, the regional government instead proposed a 'municipal protected area' to protect nature from human activities. The peasant organization, the Subcentral San Agustín, opposed the governmental proposal as a threat to its territorial autonomy and self-management, potentially worsening socio-economic inequalities. The Subcentral has been developing a territorial community strategy to manage biodiversity as traditional Life Systems, as foreseen in Bolivian legislation. The Instituto Tecnológico Agropecuario San Andrés has helped the Subcentral to develop the strategy, using a Geographic Information System and participatory techniques. Within the AgroEcos project, Jaina has facilitated knowledge co-production between the Subcentral and the Instituto, generating social and political arguments for their communitarian alternative. By 2022 their efforts had successfully blocked the government proposal to manage a 'protected area'. This outcome will maintain the current benefits of community-managed agroecological production and nature conservation, corresponding to several SDGs (as in the Narrative Impact section). |
| Description | La Valle Central, Bolivia: building capacities for Canastas Campesinas |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | After the coup d'etat against the Left-wing MAS government in November 2019, the subsequent Right-wing government was hostile to indigenous peasant organizations. Nevertheless support came from some municipal councils. When the Bioferia farmers' market could no longer operate during the pandemic, Jaina (AgroEcos team) gained support from municipal officers to initiate a box scheme for home delivery. Jaina persuaded the municipality to allocate greater logistical support and funds, thus expanding the pilot scheme into the Canastas Campesinas Alantuya. This maintained the previous income of women agroecological producers, while also enhancing their organizational capacities for short food supply chains (circuitos curtos). The new scheme also informed consumers about environmental benefits of agroecological methods. See more details in Narrative Impact section and the project's trilingual Boletim no.1, https://3d33eb12-f421-47a1-a45f-76acc45bd2d6.filesusr.com/ugd/5872ec_70e7b1823b734e6aa49c2b8ac672392a.pdf The November 2020 general election was won by Movement for Socialism (MAS)-Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples (MAS-IPSP). The new government has been more responsive to demands to support EcoSol-agroecology networks. Jaina has worked with local Parliamentary representatives to clarify ways to strengthen public policies for solidaristic food provision, building on the experience of the Canastas Campesinas Alantuya, e.g. 'ollas communitarias', outdoor soup kitchens. Note: In the Researchfish drop-down box I have chosen the least inappropriate option: 'training practitioners'. But it would be more appropriate to say: 'Enhanced the capacity of practitioners and civil society networks'. |
| URL | https://www.facebook.com/Alantuya-100178328314601/ |
| Description | Policy engagement and advances between March 2021 -- March 2022 |
| Geographic Reach | South America |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or Improved professional practice |
| Impact | See above for integrated account of policy advances |
| Description | Food sovereignty through agroecology in South America: Interdisciplinary methods for participatory action research |
| Amount | £23,200 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | GCRFNGR6 |
| Organisation | United Kingdom Research and Innovation |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2021 |
| End | 12/2021 |
| Title | Transcriptions of webinars |
| Description | The project organized several public webinars, posted on youtube here, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTHr_m07BdMnU1bembYe_hQ; The project also participated in several FESBS webinars, posted on its channel, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7aWYfIdp9AELFinBY0IV7w?view_as=subscriber The UNESP team transcribed some recordings (of course in Portuguese and/or Spanish). Eventually the transcripts will become more widely available. Initially these have been used for an NVivo analysis towards sharpening the original research questions and then interview questions for specific groups. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Early stage; see above. |
| Description | "Food sovereignty through agroecology in South America: Interdisciplinary methods for participatory action research", grant no. GCRFNGR6 in this programme https://acmedsci.ac.uk/grants-and-schemes/grant-schemes/gcrf-networking-grants |
| Organisation | Sao Paulo State University |
| Country | Brazil |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The OU participates in all the activities and advises UNESP on its coordination role, especially plans for each monthly meeting. Initially this means partners exchange knowledge and useful documents on all themes of the project. Given ongoing uncertainties about the pandemic, alongside national restrictions on foreign visitors in South American countries, the project is postponing decisions on when to plan mutual visits and whether the workshop could be done in-person rather than online. See next sub-section for details of our activities. Update March 2022: The Covid pandemic prevented the in-person activities with community partners, which had been planned for 2021. During that year, the project held monthly online discussions among the research partners. Each meeting discussed literature on the overall theme or case-study presentations from the partners, with significant benefits to them. The original timetable has been shifted to January - November 2022, with in-person activities planned for April-July and then the workshop in mid-September. The OU and UNESP jointly prepared a bibliography as reference for the monthly discussions. We have also prepared the call for papers (convocatoria) for the workshop. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Building on the AgroEcos project, UNESP (Brazil) and the OU jointly applied for this grant. The main activities will be: knowledge-exchange of relevant literature, theoretical perspectives and experiences around the project theme; mutual visits to partners' research sites; and presentations for a continent-wide workshop. The Steering Group includes partners in five other DAC countries and thus builds equity into the partnership. They are: Argentina: Professor Raúl Paz, Instituto de Estudios para el Desarrollo Social (INDES), Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero (UNSE), Santiago del Estero Bolivia: Dr Georgina Catacora-Vargas, researcher at the Working Group on Political Agroecology of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO). Colombia: Dr Luis Felipe Rincón Manrique, AgroSavia, the national agri-research institute. Ecuador: Dr Myriam del Carmen Paredes, Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO), Quito Peru: Dr Saray Siura, Programa de Hortalizas, Universidad Agraria La Molina (UNALM), La Molina, Lima. Each partner is involving more colleagues. We have added the Comunidad de Estudios Jaina (AgroEcos partner) for their expertise and literature review of Participatory Action Research. Update 2022: Each partner did at least one presentation at the monthly online meetings as preparation for the mutual visits and eventual workshop. |
| Impact | The first outputs probably will be the report and papers from the September 2022 workshop. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Agroecology-based Solidarity Economy in Bolivia and Brazil (short name AgroEcos), AHRC-GCRF project no. AH/T004274/1 |
| Organisation | Comunidad de Estudio Jaina |
| Country | Bolivia, Plurinational State of |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | The OU has coordinated and facilitated the overall project in several ways. For example: structuring project meetings, initiating (and drafting) presentations for international events, proposing Advisory Panel members and liaising with them, contributing a literature review on EcoSol-agroecology, advising other partners on their literature reviews, helping to refine the research questions, sending specific suggestions for the research focus to each partner, advising on interview plans, etc. Each partner contributed a literature review; each was discussed at a project meeting. Partners' specific contrinutions are listed in the next sub-section. Given the ongoing pandemic, blocking our original workshop plan for each case-study area, the project team discussed other ways forward. In mid-2020 the project carried out interactive webinars, initally from each case study and its research team (see Engagement Activities) and subsequently on specific themes. Speakers were mainly practitioners of various kinds, e.g. small-scale producers (especially women), civil society solidarity networks, community-supported agriculture, municipal officers, agri-extension officers and our research teams. The webinars were widely publicised via Facebook pages, Whatsapp groups and our Advisory Panel members. The webinars attracted participants mainly from Brazil, though also more widely from around Latin America (e.g. Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina). Average attendance was 60-80 participants; they sent questions which were discussed by the speakers. Transcriptions of the webinars, alongside many other sources, provided material for NVivo analysis by small groups from the research teams. AgroEcos youtube channel with recordings of our webinars, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTHr_m07BdMnU1bembYe_hQ Each one is also listed in the most relevant place in the Engagement Activities section. |
| Collaborator Contribution | AgroEcos (short name of project) has three partners. Each partner contributes a local case study with a community agri-food initiative as well as a literature review of analytical perspectives. In particular: Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP, São Paulo State University), in partnership with the Fórum de Economia Solidária da Baixada Santista (FESBS) for the study of that region. UNESP helps to coordinate regular discussions among all the three partners, plans for the webinars, transcriptions of the recordings, and the NVivo analytical process. Also contributed a literature review on gender inequalities and means to overcome them. It manages the project website and the AgroEcos youtube channel with recordings of our webinars, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTHr_m07BdMnU1bembYe_hQ Observatório de Territórios Sustentáveis e Saudáveis da Bocaina (OTSS), Brazil, in partnership with the Fórum de Comunidades Tradicionais (FCT) for the Bocaina case study. Also contributed a literature review on means to structure, record and portray processes of Participatory Action Research. In mid-2020 the OTSS produced several short films on how traditional communities have responded to the pandemic; these are listed in the Artistic & Creative Products section. It has been carrying out social cartography with such communities to map their strategic responses during the pandemic; later the other teams will learn from those methods. Comunidad de Estudio Jaina, Tarija, Bolivia, in partnership with Bioferia, women agroecological producers who cooperatively organise marketing arrangements, for the case study of that locality. Also contributed a literature review on methods of Participatory Action Research. It has liaised with Advisory Panel members. With women's agroecological cooperatives, Jaina helped to create a new system of collective marketing. |
| Impact | See under other sections, especially Narrative Impacts and Engagement Activities. Disciplines: rural sociology, human geography, feminist studies, Science & Technology Studies (STS), participatory action research As regards the question below on formal agreements: Each partner has a Collaboration Agreement emphasising partners' roles but does not explicitly cover material transfer or confidentiality. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Agroecology-based Solidarity Economy in Bolivia and Brazil (short name AgroEcos), AHRC-GCRF project no. AH/T004274/1 |
| Organisation | Observatório de Territórios Sustentáveis e Saudáveis da Bocaina (OTSS) |
| Country | Brazil |
| Sector | Learned Society |
| PI Contribution | The OU has coordinated and facilitated the overall project in several ways. For example: structuring project meetings, initiating (and drafting) presentations for international events, proposing Advisory Panel members and liaising with them, contributing a literature review on EcoSol-agroecology, advising other partners on their literature reviews, helping to refine the research questions, sending specific suggestions for the research focus to each partner, advising on interview plans, etc. Each partner contributed a literature review; each was discussed at a project meeting. Partners' specific contrinutions are listed in the next sub-section. Given the ongoing pandemic, blocking our original workshop plan for each case-study area, the project team discussed other ways forward. In mid-2020 the project carried out interactive webinars, initally from each case study and its research team (see Engagement Activities) and subsequently on specific themes. Speakers were mainly practitioners of various kinds, e.g. small-scale producers (especially women), civil society solidarity networks, community-supported agriculture, municipal officers, agri-extension officers and our research teams. The webinars were widely publicised via Facebook pages, Whatsapp groups and our Advisory Panel members. The webinars attracted participants mainly from Brazil, though also more widely from around Latin America (e.g. Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina). Average attendance was 60-80 participants; they sent questions which were discussed by the speakers. Transcriptions of the webinars, alongside many other sources, provided material for NVivo analysis by small groups from the research teams. AgroEcos youtube channel with recordings of our webinars, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTHr_m07BdMnU1bembYe_hQ Each one is also listed in the most relevant place in the Engagement Activities section. |
| Collaborator Contribution | AgroEcos (short name of project) has three partners. Each partner contributes a local case study with a community agri-food initiative as well as a literature review of analytical perspectives. In particular: Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP, São Paulo State University), in partnership with the Fórum de Economia Solidária da Baixada Santista (FESBS) for the study of that region. UNESP helps to coordinate regular discussions among all the three partners, plans for the webinars, transcriptions of the recordings, and the NVivo analytical process. Also contributed a literature review on gender inequalities and means to overcome them. It manages the project website and the AgroEcos youtube channel with recordings of our webinars, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTHr_m07BdMnU1bembYe_hQ Observatório de Territórios Sustentáveis e Saudáveis da Bocaina (OTSS), Brazil, in partnership with the Fórum de Comunidades Tradicionais (FCT) for the Bocaina case study. Also contributed a literature review on means to structure, record and portray processes of Participatory Action Research. In mid-2020 the OTSS produced several short films on how traditional communities have responded to the pandemic; these are listed in the Artistic & Creative Products section. It has been carrying out social cartography with such communities to map their strategic responses during the pandemic; later the other teams will learn from those methods. Comunidad de Estudio Jaina, Tarija, Bolivia, in partnership with Bioferia, women agroecological producers who cooperatively organise marketing arrangements, for the case study of that locality. Also contributed a literature review on methods of Participatory Action Research. It has liaised with Advisory Panel members. With women's agroecological cooperatives, Jaina helped to create a new system of collective marketing. |
| Impact | See under other sections, especially Narrative Impacts and Engagement Activities. Disciplines: rural sociology, human geography, feminist studies, Science & Technology Studies (STS), participatory action research As regards the question below on formal agreements: Each partner has a Collaboration Agreement emphasising partners' roles but does not explicitly cover material transfer or confidentiality. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Agroecology-based Solidarity Economy in Bolivia and Brazil (short name AgroEcos), AHRC-GCRF project no. AH/T004274/1 |
| Organisation | Sao Paulo State University |
| Country | Brazil |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The OU has coordinated and facilitated the overall project in several ways. For example: structuring project meetings, initiating (and drafting) presentations for international events, proposing Advisory Panel members and liaising with them, contributing a literature review on EcoSol-agroecology, advising other partners on their literature reviews, helping to refine the research questions, sending specific suggestions for the research focus to each partner, advising on interview plans, etc. Each partner contributed a literature review; each was discussed at a project meeting. Partners' specific contrinutions are listed in the next sub-section. Given the ongoing pandemic, blocking our original workshop plan for each case-study area, the project team discussed other ways forward. In mid-2020 the project carried out interactive webinars, initally from each case study and its research team (see Engagement Activities) and subsequently on specific themes. Speakers were mainly practitioners of various kinds, e.g. small-scale producers (especially women), civil society solidarity networks, community-supported agriculture, municipal officers, agri-extension officers and our research teams. The webinars were widely publicised via Facebook pages, Whatsapp groups and our Advisory Panel members. The webinars attracted participants mainly from Brazil, though also more widely from around Latin America (e.g. Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina). Average attendance was 60-80 participants; they sent questions which were discussed by the speakers. Transcriptions of the webinars, alongside many other sources, provided material for NVivo analysis by small groups from the research teams. AgroEcos youtube channel with recordings of our webinars, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTHr_m07BdMnU1bembYe_hQ Each one is also listed in the most relevant place in the Engagement Activities section. |
| Collaborator Contribution | AgroEcos (short name of project) has three partners. Each partner contributes a local case study with a community agri-food initiative as well as a literature review of analytical perspectives. In particular: Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP, São Paulo State University), in partnership with the Fórum de Economia Solidária da Baixada Santista (FESBS) for the study of that region. UNESP helps to coordinate regular discussions among all the three partners, plans for the webinars, transcriptions of the recordings, and the NVivo analytical process. Also contributed a literature review on gender inequalities and means to overcome them. It manages the project website and the AgroEcos youtube channel with recordings of our webinars, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTHr_m07BdMnU1bembYe_hQ Observatório de Territórios Sustentáveis e Saudáveis da Bocaina (OTSS), Brazil, in partnership with the Fórum de Comunidades Tradicionais (FCT) for the Bocaina case study. Also contributed a literature review on means to structure, record and portray processes of Participatory Action Research. In mid-2020 the OTSS produced several short films on how traditional communities have responded to the pandemic; these are listed in the Artistic & Creative Products section. It has been carrying out social cartography with such communities to map their strategic responses during the pandemic; later the other teams will learn from those methods. Comunidad de Estudio Jaina, Tarija, Bolivia, in partnership with Bioferia, women agroecological producers who cooperatively organise marketing arrangements, for the case study of that locality. Also contributed a literature review on methods of Participatory Action Research. It has liaised with Advisory Panel members. With women's agroecological cooperatives, Jaina helped to create a new system of collective marketing. |
| Impact | See under other sections, especially Narrative Impacts and Engagement Activities. Disciplines: rural sociology, human geography, feminist studies, Science & Technology Studies (STS), participatory action research As regards the question below on formal agreements: Each partner has a Collaboration Agreement emphasising partners' roles but does not explicitly cover material transfer or confidentiality. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Academic conference presentations |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Society for Latin American Studies (SLAS), Bristol, 22-23 April 2022 This was a Spanish-language online session, since most conference participants could understand Spanish. The session had the title, EcoSol-agroecologia responde a la pandemia: innovando circuitos cortos solidarias como proximidades (EcoSol-agroecology responds to the pandemic: innovating solidaristic circuitos cortos as proximities The OU project leader presented the project's analytical framework for understanding solidaristic short supply chains (circuitos cortos). There followed presentations by the three research groups which had carried out participatory action research with community partners. Baixada Santista, Brasil: Universidad Estadual Paulista (UNESP), São Paulo, with the Fórum de Economía Solidaria da Baixada Santista (FESBS). Bocaina, Brasil: Observatório de Territórios Susteníbles e Saludables da Bocaina (OTSS) with the Fórum de Comunidades Tradicionais (FCT). El Valle Central: Comunidad de Estudio Jaina, Tarija, Bolívia, with the Asociación Bioferia y la comunidad Subcentral St Agustin. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.bath.ac.uk/events/society-for-latin-american-studies-slas-annual-conference-2022/ |
| Description | Academic webinar in London |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Seminar presentation by Les Levidow, 'To conserve is to resist': Traditional communities mobilise agri-food and musical cultures for a territorialized development in the Bocaina, Brazil. Organized by the Development Studies Department, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. The event publicity was widely circulated to SOAS academics and the author's Europe-wide contacts, then transmitted on Zoom. The film was then posted on youtube as below and was widely circulated. As an immediate benefit, the talk brought together staff doing complementary research within the Development Studies Department and Music Department (beyond the options in the drop-down box below). The SOAS Music Department circulated the youtube link to its international network on eco-ethnomusicology. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://youtu.be/9fZcyx43sUw |
| Description | AgroEcos Bulletin no.1 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | In December 2020 the project issued AgroEcos Bulletin no.1 in three languages: a project overview is followed by findings from the three case studies. The link was circulated through several agri-food networks in Latin America (including the Advisory Panel and FAO representatives there), as well as in Europe. We have put the link in the chat space of relevant events, especially those about Latin America, e.g. sessions at the the newly online Oxford Real Farming Conference in January 2021, and the FAO's Latin America online conference in March 2021. Some readers contacted the project and/or looked at the website for more information. Other parts of this Researchfish report cite the Bulletin where relevant, especially for the three case studies. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://3d33eb12-f421-47a1-a45f-76acc45bd2d6.filesusr.com/ugd/5872ec_70e7b1823b734e6aa49c2b8ac672392... |
| Description | AgroEcos Project's final conference, 15 March 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The project's final conference was held online on 15th March 2022, given the ongoing uncertainties about Covid-19. Towards refining the final report, Les Levidow presented the project's analytical framework of social proximities which underlie solidaristic short supply chains (circuitos cortos). This illuminates how collective capacities enabled circuitos cortos to continue through creative adaptations during the Covid-19 pandemic. This framework helps to compare the three case studies and other relevant cases. There followed presentations by the three research teams which had carried out participatory action research with community partners, namely: Baixada Santista, Brasil: Universidad Estadual Paulista (UNESP), São Paulo, with the Fórum de Economía Solidaria da Baixada Santista (FESBS). Bocaina, Brasil: Observatório de Territórios Susteníbles e Saludables da Bocaina (OTSS) with the Fórum de Comunidades Tradicionais (FCT). El Valle Central: Comunidad de Estudio Jaina, Tarija, Bolívia, with the Asociación Bioferia y la comunidad Subcentral St Agustin. Then invited experts did commentaries on those presentations and the project's draft report. In particular: Claudia Job Schmitt, UFRRJ Miriam Nobre, Sempreviva Organização Feminista (SOF) Paulo Petersen, Agricultura Familiar e Agroecologia (AS-PTA), an agricultural extension service. Comments from them and other participants helped to sharpen the final reports. This also generated more interest in the reports when tney were webposted and publicised in autumn 2022 The youtube recording is listed below. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMxNea5x7og |
| Description | Ecosystem-based pathway adaptation/ /Curso adaptación basada en ecosistemas (AbE) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | "Valoración de la producción de agua de neblina en la serranía de Cieneguillas y promoción de la agrobiodiversidad nativa como estrategia de adaptación al cambio climático en la subcentral de San Agustín". Valorizing wáter vapour in the Cieneguillas mountains and promoting native biodiversity as a strategy for adapting to climate change in the subcentral de San Agustín, El Valle Central. Organizations: Joint research proposal by Asociación Agrónomas Asociadas para el Desarrollo en las Zonas Agroecológicas (ADEZA, agronomists in agroecological zones). Proposal: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_9PsTUSkYHyBur1_x0tNFOgmCXWU3LUt/edit# Description: As historical background, the long decline in rainfall has created difficulties for agriculture and led many people to leave rural areas such as Cieneguillas. They seek work in cities. To avoid such displacement, this project uses GPS techniques to map natural resources. This knowledge will provide a basis to recover wáter from mountain mist/dew and renew agroecológica agriculture there. This could become a generalised tool for participatory action research helping farmers to deal with arid conditions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_9PsTUSkYHyBur1_x0tNFOgmCXWU3LUt/edit# |
| Description | Indigenous farming system on circular resource model |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Title: Indigenous farming system on circular resource model Activity type: production system for tilapia and fruits Description: This novel agroecological system has been designed to recycle nutrients between tilapia and fruit farming. It provides new skills and an extra income source for the Aguapeú indigenous community. Moreover, it establishes a demonstration site for replicating the model throughout the region, with support from the many sponsoring organizations (see below). This initiative has been facilitated by the AgroEcos project through some funds and its community partner, the Fórum de Economia Solidária da Baixada Santista (FESBS). Organisations: Aguapeú indigenous village, Mongagua municipality, Mongagua MBH-II Programme, Agente de Apoio Agropecuário of SAA/CATI (agricultural extensionists), Geographical reach: regional Activity year: 2021-2022 Location: Aguapeú indigenous village, Mongagua, Baixada Santista region |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.facebook.com/pages/Aguape%C3%BA/102213512403055 |
| Description | Interactive webinar on EcoSol-agroecology in El Valle Central, Bolivia, 22.07.2020, |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Supporters |
| Results and Impact | Webinar title: "Outras economias, circuitos curtos solidários e agrobiodiversidade" (Other economies, solidaristic circuitos curtos and agrobiodiversity) in the Valle Central, Bolivia: Knowledge-exchange with fellow practitioners of EcoSol-agroecology networks |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkeMUoCQo0c&t=1567s |
| Description | Interactive webinar on EcoSol-agroecology in the Baixada Santista, Brazil, 17.06.2020, |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Supporters |
| Results and Impact | Webinar title: "Economia Solidária & Agroecologia enfrentam a Pandemia Covid 19 na Baixada Santista" (Solidarity Economy and Agroecology confront the Covid 19 pandemic in the Baixada Santista) Knowledge-exchange with fellow practitioners of EcoSol-agroecology networks in the region and beyond |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq1nXwpdoDw |
| Description | Interactive webinar on EcoSol-agroecology networks in the Bocaina, Litoral Norte, Brazil, 02.07.2020 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Supporters |
| Results and Impact | Webinar title: "Agroecologia, pesca e economia solidária na Bocaína em tempos de Covid 19" (Agroecology, fishing and solidarity economy in the Bocaina in times of Covid-19) Knowledge-exchange with fellow practitioners of EcoSol-agroecology networks, as reported to its local networks, https://www2.unesp.br/portal#!/noticia/35871/comunidades-tradicionais-debatem-agroecologia-na-pandemia |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://youtu.be/2o963VAfqAs |
| Description | Interactive webinar on commercialisation technologies, 28.01.2021 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Seminário Agroecos: "Tecnologias de gestão para comercialização de produtos agroecológicos" (Technologies for managing commercialisation of agroecological products), 28.01.2021. This brought together EcoSol-agroecology initiatives from three countries (Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina) for a knowledge-exchange on technologies for managing producer-consumer relationships through circuitos curtos. These generally bring women rural producers closer to urban consumers through various forms of proximity, known as circuitos curtos. Producers gain capacities to highlight quality products and to retain more of the money value, rather than lose value to profit-driven intermediaries such as supermarket chains. The broad concept 'social technology' encompasses diverse techniques designed for those purposes. Some initiatives have redesigned social media (Whatsapp) in forms more appropriate for solidaristic relationships. In this webinar, continent-wide initiatives exchanged experiences of such strategies. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://youtu.be/MamIh2NF4vk |
| Description | Knowledge-exchange online between two traditional communities in Brazil and Bolivia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Title: Knowledge-exchange between the Bocaina and Valle Central Activity type: series of discussions Description: Knowledge-exchange discussions brought together two teams of the project: Bocaina, Brazil: Subcentral San Augustin peasant community with the Comunidad de Estudios Jaina (Tarija) Valle Central, Bolivia: Fórum de Comunidades Tradicionais (FCT) with Observatório de Territórios Sustentáveis e Saudáveis da Bocaina (OTSS) The two teams discussed how they face common problems from neocolonial development agendas and how they develop communitarian responses in democratically self-governed initiatives promoting alternative development models. These discussions helped to build a common understanding within and across the research teams. Afterwards the Valle Central community partner made a short film describing their context and initiative, as a greeting to the Bocaina team; see the link below. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a8pSPBajAXwcKdVXlPSLLOB-0x98FPGs/view |
| Description | SEAE-SOCLA Jornadas Tecnicas |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Three presentations from the AgroEcos partners at an international online conference of Spain's Agroecological Association: SEAE-SOCLA Jornadas Tecnicas, 'Salud de los agroecosistemas y bienestar humano: indicadores de la producción ecológica' (Agroecosystem health and human well-being: indicators of ecological production), 28-29 October 2020. The AgroEcos webpage below consolidates the three Abstracts with links to the recordings including discussion. Each partner's paper in the Proceedings (Acta) has a separate entry in the Publications category. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://projetoagroecos.wixsite.com/meusite/post/xxviii-jornadas-t%C3%A9cnicas-seae-socla-sociedad-c... |
| Description | Social cartography as group activity |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Type: Social cartography group activity Description: The region's three traditional communities carried out social cartography to map whatever they most value in their territories. . As representatives have said: With the participation of the traditional communities, the project 'maps only what the communities want to characterise. 'They discover, step by step, how to carry out this collective construction'. This activity has several purposes. The process can contribute to collective self-management, cultural heritage, food security, health practices, community empowerment, etc. The project produced reports on three territories (see link below) and made a film, 'POVOS - Territórios, identidade e tradição', https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp4rMHJzlqc Organizations: Fórum de Comunidades Tradicionais (FCT), Observatório de Territórios Sustentáveis e Saudáveis da Bocaina (OTSS), Coordenação Nacional de Articulação das Comunidades Negras Rurais Quilombolas (CONAQ), a Comissão Guarani Yvyrupá (CGY) e a Coordenação Nacional de Comunidades Tradicionais Caiçaras (CNCTC). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.otss.org.br/post/nos-por-nos-mesmos-publicacoes-revelam-mapas-ineditos |
| Description | UK-Brazil collaborative article from webinar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Rachel Dixon, Lidia Cabral, Claudia Schmitt and Les Levidow, "How can Brazil sustain its food solidarity economy post-Covid?". This article resulted from a November 2020 webinar, 'Building back from Brazil's pandemic: localising agri-food systems as a solidarity economy', hosted by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS, Univ of Sussex). The webinar brought together four research projects in Brazil, including the AgroEcos project. The article has a link to the webinar recording. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.ids.ac.uk/opinions/how-can-brazil-sustain-its-food-solidarity-economy-post-covid |
| Description | article in Bolivia's national newspaper |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Iniciativa "Todo por la vida" en Tarija cuenta con 20 productoras (Initiatve 'All for Life' in Tarjia involves 20 producers), El Pais, 24 marzo 2020. After the Comunidad de Estudios Jaina helped women's cooperatives to establish a new food-basket delivery system, Bolivia's national newspaper published the above article. This attracted local interest to increase the municipal support, to volunteer assistance and/or to subscribe to the weekly baskets through the Facebook page of the new system at https://www.facebook.com/Alantuya-100178328314601/. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://elpais.bo/iniciativa-todo-por-la-vida-en-tarija-cuenta-con-20-productoras/ |
| Description | article in Portuguese and English |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | "Title: Agroecologia tem benefícios sociais que dependem em relações solidárias: experiencias na Baixada Santista", https://3d33eb12-f421-47a1-a45f-76acc45bd2d6.filesusr.com/ugd/5872ec_9199e824ded34a3c9c45ba797335e0db.pdf Analyses EcoSol-agroecologia initiatives and their support networks in the Baixada Santista, Brazil, drawing on interviews with them. Portuguese-language version of article, 'Agroecology has social benefits which depend on solidarity relationships', was published by Agroecology Europe: October 2021 Month of Agroecology, https://www.agroecology-europe.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Month-of-Agroecology-Article-on-Social-Values-Les-Levidow-.pdf The Portuguese version was widely circulated around Latin America through the AgroEcos Facebook page. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.agroecology-europe.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Month-of-Agroecology-Article-on-Social... |
| Description | article in international academic bulletin |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Les Levidow, Meanings lost and found: Translating 'sociotechnical' for a Brazilian counter-hegemonic agenda, EASST Review, March 2021, special section on 'Translations', European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://easst.net |
| Description | blog article on Latin American website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Title: Economía Solidaria basada en redes sociotécnicas como concepto contrahegemónico Description: Backchannels is the Spanish-language blog site of an academic network, Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S). This blog explains how the academic concept 'sociotechnical network' has been appropriated in a counter-hegemonic sense for Brazil's solidarity economy agendas. It translates the authors' article that had been published in an English-language bulletin. Geographical reach: international Activity year: 2021 Primary audience: academics Numbers: 100-500 Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.4sonline.org/economia-solidaria-basada-en-redes-sociotecnicas-como-concepto-contrahegemo... |
| Description | blog post: 'Return to normal?' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Levidow, L. 2020. 'Return to normal' from the Covid-19 crisis? Brazil's solidaristic agri-food initiatives towards a different future, 07.05.2020. São Paolo. Brasil: UNESP AgroEcos site as below. This article was also posted on the FAO agroecology website, attracting more interest to the project website. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://projetoagroecos.wixsite.com/meusite/post/return-to-normal-from-the-covid-19-crisis |
| Description | blog: Participatory Action Research methods |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Sansolo, D., Villani, G.G., Levidow, L. 2021. Pesquisa-ação-participativa na pandemia: aspeitos metodológicos (Participatory Action Research in the pandemic: methodological aspects), 15.02.2021. Posted in both languages on the AgroEcos website below (Brazil). Short version posted on the OU website with other blogs from GCRF projects, http://www.open.ac.uk/ikd/blog |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://projetoagroecos.wixsite.com/meusite/post/pesquisa-a%C3%A7%C3%A3o-participativa-na-pandemia-a... |
| Description | course in agroecological transition |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Title: Curso de Transição Agroecológica (course in agroecological transition) Activity type: training Description: This 4-session training course emerged from requests of many practitioners in the AgroEcos project, and then from an internal webinar on 13.07.2021 with representatives of CATI-CDRS (Coordenadoria de Desenvolvimento Rural Sustentável). With UNESP they jointly planned the course to go beyond cultivation methods. It emphasised circuitos cortos, including pathways for agroecological producers to gain organic certification, in a solidarity economy framework. Participants included many individuals who had participated in AgroEcos webinars, especially those who had been interviewed. Initiatives include: Morro das Panelas (Peruíbe-SP), Rede Solidária de Peruíbe (Peruíbe-SP) Coletivo Banana Verde (Bertioga-SP), União das Mulheres Produtoras da Economia Solidária de Peruíbe - UMPES (Peruíbe-SP) e Associação dos Produtores Rurais da Microbacia Hidrográfica do Rio Branco de Itanhaém - AMIBRA (Itanhaém-SP), Projeto Conexão Mata Atlântica. Module 1 consisted of several sessions, both in-person and online. November-December 2021 sessions were recorded and posted on the AgroEcos youtube site, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTHr_m07BdMnU1bembYe_hQ As an important outcome, CATI-CDRS further developed its Protocol for Agroecological Transition, especially guidance for agroecological producers to gain on organic certification. This incentivises more producers to undergo an agroecological transition. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://projetoagroecos.wixsite.com/meusite/post/curso-do-agroecos-promove-agenda-agroecol%C3%B3gica |
| Description | film on website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Title: La Bioferia, agrobiodiversidad y economía solidaria en Tarija, 11.04.2021, Description: A visual tour of the Bioferia, a weekly encounter between women agri-producers and consumers of agroecological products in an economy of proximity. This solidarity market promotes and finances agrobiodiversity conservation in the rural communities where the producers live. The film was produced by the Comunidad de Estudios Jaina and was promoted through its Facebook page. The film promoted the women's products and helped to raise their sales. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnCbrdUeUCs |
| Description | food basket weekly distribution to vulnerable families, Bocaina, Brazil |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Title: Cestas da Agricultura Familiar de Paraty Type: Food distribution Description: As background, when the Covid-19 pandemic posed great dangers, the OTSS and FCT jointly established the campaign 'Cuidar é Resistir' (To Care is to Resist). To reduce people's vulnerability, this campaign restricted access to outsiders, thus lost significant income, and provided emergency deliveries of 'cestas basicas' (basic food baskets). It facilitated exchanges of agri-food products and knowlege amongst traditional communities. The supply has come partly from bulk food purchases from outside Paraty but also increasingly from local artisanal fishers and agroecological producers. The latter were facilitated by an OTSS-FCT initiative to map such production sites and idle fields available for greater food production. These efforts have enabled the Cesta scheme to expand their reach to producers and recipients in early 2022, while also connecting them more directly, thus strengthening communitarian bonds. It also raises the profile of traditional local foods, thus countering the commercial and cultural pressures of the ultra-processed food that dominates the region. Organizations: Fórum de Comunidades Tradicionais (FCT), Observatório de Territórios Sustentáveis e Saudáveis da Bocaina (OTSS), |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.facebook.com/groups/1384849224929289/posts/3893822910698562 |
| Description | herbal remedies promoted at a Bolivian fair |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Title: 'Hierbas naturales y uso de la medicina natural' Type: Outdoor fair Description: Special stalls promoted indigenous medicinal plants which can remedy illnesses, especially those from Covid 19. Organizations: The event was facilitated by the Comunidad de Estudios Jaina and was sponsored by the peasant union, La Federación Sindica Única de Comunidades Campesinas de Tarija. A film of the event, Participacion de Organizacion de Medicina Natural, was promoted through Jaina's Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/100412658968778/videos/203150898375776 Location: Feira Departmental al Parque Tematico, Tarija, Boliva, 25-26 June 2021, |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.facebook.com/100412658968778/videos/203150898375776 |
| Description | online conference presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Title: Traditional and indigenous food systems knowledge in the colonial drifts. Description: United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) "Science Days", 30.07.2021 Organizations: 'Traditional and indigenous food systems knowledge in the colonial drifts' was a joint presentation by the Comunidad de Estudios Jaina and Instituto Tecnológico Agropecuario San Andrés, based in El Valle Central, Bolivia. Presentation described the local decolonization efforts towards recovering indigenous peasant food traditions, based on a rich biocultural food heritage. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19is03QWUKEu93GwJ9CbzAVV7jM6bobHD |
| Description | online workshop to design a cooperative marketing app |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | App for cooperative marketing: During the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil, producers' cooperatives have used social media to reach more consumers, who make advance payments through social media. But Whatsapp commercial programs constrain the users, e.g. by deducting a percentage of the sales for the program owner, and by lacking space to explain the agroecological production methods. To overcome those constraints, tech experts have devised alternative designs through discussions with many EcoSol-agroecology networks. Design options were discussed at AgroEcos webinars, e.g. Alternativas digitais que facilitam a comunicação entre produtores e consumidores (Digital alternatives that facilitate producer-consumer communication), 16.07.2020, youtube link below. The new design has been in a pilot phase, generating interest from EcoSol-agroecology networks in the Baixada Santista. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Cl3xnrBdrs |
| Description | project bulletin in three languages |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | AgroEcos Boletim no.2, December 2021 Trilingual report on activities of the AgroEcos partners, especially how they have innovated circuitos cortos (short supply chains) of agroecological products. These chains are analysed as various forms of social proximity, as seen in the three case-study areas |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://3d33eb12-f421-47a1-a45f-76acc45bd2d6.filesusr.com/ugd/5872ec_d481be82b91e48c39175dcd6b329b51... |
| Description | regional newspaper article |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Silva, NJR da, Reis, M.F. e Sansolo, D.G. 2020. Iniciativas econômicas solidárias na Baixada Santista: reações frente à Covid (Solidarity economy initiatives in the Baixada Santista: reactions to Covid-19), La Folha Santista, 09.06.2020. Santos: Brasil. Co-authored by UNESP and FESBS, this article initiated a regular series highlighting the region's EcoSol-agroecology activities and proposing effective support measures from public policies at several levels. The articles generated greater interest in such activities through the FESBS and other Facebook pages of specific initiatives which create solidaristic links between producers and consumers. Greater support has taken many forms: ordering food deliveries, visiting drive-thru farmers' markets, volunteering to help these efforts, and advocating supportive policies (including local election candidates). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://folhasantista.com.br/noticias/cidades/meioambiente/iniciativas-economicas-solidarias-na-baix... |
| Description | short article on NGO website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Agroecology and the Solidarity Economy (blog) Agricultural and Rural Convention (ARC) 2020 is a large European umbrella organization promoting agroecology and supportive policies among stakeholder groups, especially farmers' and environmental organizations. In October 2022 it published our blog piece, 'Agroecology and the Solidarity Economy'. It highlighted some Brazilian initiatives, especially for their relevance to the European context, and encouraged readers to look at our project's English-language report. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.arc2020.eu/latin-america-agroecology-and-the-solidarity-economy/ |
| Description | three traditional communities, Bocaina, Brazil, in online meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Title: III Encontro de Justiça Socioambiental (third meeting on socioenvironmental justice) Type: Online workshop Description ;Workshop shared knowledge about experiences of the three traditional communities in the Bocaina with support organizations, some providing agroecological expertise. Organizations: Fórum de Comunidades Tradicionais (FCT), Observatório de Territórios Sustentáveis e Saudáveis da Bocaina (OTSS), Ministério Público Federal, Defensorias Públicas, ICMBio, organized with Cooperacion Internacional, https://www.ciong.org/ |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | http://www.preservareresistir.org/single-post/f%C3%B3rum-de-comunidades-tradicionais-anuncia-iii-enc... |
| Description | webinar of Bolivian partner |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Title: 'Diversidad Economica y Agroecologia', 01.07.2021 Type: interactive webinar Description: At this webinar the Comunidad de Estudios Jaina (Bolivia) described how communitarian economies adapted to the sociopolitical-health crisis of the Covid 19 pandemic. In the city of Tarija, the Asociacion Bioferia had run a weekly outdoor farmers' market for many years. The pandemic restrictions prevented the market from operating, so Jaina helped to establish a food-basket delivery system, the Canasta Campesina Alantuya. Some Bioferia members come from the rural region la Subcentral de San Agustín, which seeks to maintain its communitarian management of the land under the principles of Vivir Bien, respecting la Madre Tierra (Mother Earth). The rural connection with the Bioferia illustrates Bolivia's economic diversity, also known as the 'economia plural', as a government commitment. The webinar attracted participants from all over Latin America and so spread Jaina's experiences more widely. Participants submitted questions which were answered by the speakers. This webinar was the 2nd in a series, Seminário AgroEcos 2021, whose recordings are available here, https://projetoagroecos.wixsite.com/meusite/copia-sobre |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUFe4a4FpIw&t=2s |
| Description | webinar of Bolivian partner |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Title: 'Proximidades na Baixada Santista (Brasil) e no Valle Central (Tarija - Bolívia), 11.10.2021 Description: This webinar elaborated the concept 'proximities' to illuminate means of maintaining and expanding a solidarity economy. From the Fórum de Economia Solidária da Baixada Santista (FESBS) Newton Rodrigues introduced the concept, relating it to practical strategies and their outcomes. The concept was applied to two AgroEcos case-study areas, the Baixada Santista and Valle Central. The webinar was attended by many initiatives based in those regions. The discussion clarified how solidarity economy activity (especially based on agroecology) has already developed various social proximities and strategies to expand them. Participants submitted questions, which were answered by the speakers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm2NxoCaUxY&t=1s |
| Description | webinar of Brazilian partner |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Title: Agroecologia e Economia Solidária em Comunidades Tradicionais, 15.07.2021 Type: interactive webinar Geographical reach: international Description: This was the 3rd in the series, Seminário AgroEcos 2021. Here the Forum de Comunidades Tradicionais (FCT), with their partner the Observatório de Territórios Sustentáveis e Saudáveis da Bocaina (OTSS), presented their joint actions to strengthen agroecology in traditional communities in the Bocaina (especially Ubatuba, Paraty e Angra dos Reis) in response to the Covid 19 pandemic. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_2TFrrCsGo |