BAR
ACARÁ-AÇU
Zeno Julio Moreira Gemaque
REPRESENTATIVE
COMMUNITY
Acará-Açu - Pará
"my dream is that one day people from riverside communities will be recognized for the positive impact they have on the world"
LINK WITH THE EARTH
"The importance of this project is to improve people's quality of life, without causing any type of aggression to their culture and way of life. We can be a channel and give voice to those who live here".
“De Mendes embraced the cause from the beginning and made himself very available. He went to our region, visited people in the community with me, and gave me all the fermentation training. This motivated me because I saw that he was a very interested and dedicated person in what he does. From there, we started to set these goals. More and more I believe in this work. Others are also embracing the cause, are planting more cocoa and feel happier and more confident.”
RELATIONSHIP WITH MENDES
CONTRIBUTION / TRANSFORMATION
“As a community leader, I saw in cocoa an opportunity to help people improve their quality of life, without affecting the culture, the history that already exists there, with nature and the environment. It is an opportunity to improve not only financially, but also to make them feel more capable, gain more perspective on life, preserving and maintaining that forest, that ecosystem”.
“It is exaggerated deforestation in floodplain areas for the practice of açaí monoculture. Not that açaí is bad, but when people do it without any kind of information, without any thought about the imbalance they are causing, I see a problem right in front of us. This will generate a great environmental and, consequently, socioeconomic impact, because when this loses its balance, it will generate serious problems. Another concern is the plantation of cocoa from other regions here in our lands. Our cocoa is of excellent quality, high productivity and would start to lose all its beauty if it were not a native cocoa but a hybrid”.
CONCERN/THREAT
dream/future
"My main objective with all the work I do there, both with nut and cocoa, is to try to make people proud, happy to be recognized as natives, like the native peoples of that region, and that they become true guardians of that nature, that river, that locality. And of course, that these people are also financially rewarded for all the work they do, exploring the region correctly and consciously, and have a significant improvement in their quality of life”.