About the NGO….

PURAVIDA

- a brief overview -
Who are we?
NGO PURAVIDA is the result of an initiative of a group of educators, permaculturalists, scientists, artists and musicians with a vision of creating a place for sustainable living and learning. NGO PURAVIDA is a Brazilian Registered Association that functions as a network of people from diverse backgrounds who are united in their passion to explore sustainable ways of living, being, creating, working, learning and travelling.

The NGO is dedicated to ecological sustainability through sustainable agriculture, permaculture, ecological building, education and arts. It aims to create a community that is actively engaged in sustainable agriculture, embracing nature, wellness and culture. It aims to do so through the creation of a centre for sustainability that focuses on simple ‘back to basics’ , self-sufficient living, where people from all different cultures can come together to gain a greater understanding of one another as well the land. The vision is for a fun, safe and educational retreat/ space which encourages love for life and nature and the sharing of cultural values through story telling, learning traditions and practical skills.

The FOUNDING PRINCIPLES of the NGO are:

A belief in non ownership, permaculture, sustainability, equality, justice, fairness, respect and value for other cultures and ways of being
To live in rhythm with the natural cycles of Gaia and understand the intricate connectedness of the whole.
To be an inclusive network
To live in community and learn to settle our disputes through negotiation and compromise
To encourage diversity
To preserve the Atlantic Rainforest
To uphold honesty and integrity with each other,
To listen, give voice to all.
Finding alternative ways of living, being, working and creating
To work towards self sufficiency and food sovereignty
To honour and respect the ancestral voices of the land and forest
Right relationship with each other and the land
To balance autonomy and interdependence
Shared responsibility!

Structure
NGO PURAVIDA is a Brazilian registered association with presently a board of four administrators:

• President: Maximilian Hagl Cordioli, Brazilian, lawyer in Sao Paulo.
• Financial Director: Bruno Catonne, French.
• Secretary: Elin Lindhagen, Swedish.
• Administrator: Sam Duby, English / French

The NGO is supported by a group of trustees in the UK who all contributed to the initial investment to buy the farm. The group is kept updated on the projects progress and are consulted on large financial decisions.

Farm Facts
Fazenda PURAVIDA is located near the village of Agua Fria on the Rio de Contas approximately 35 km West of Itacare in the state of Bahia on the east coast of Brazil. The farm has a total of 151 ha (370 acres) composed of 51 ha of cacao plantations, 70 ha of rainforest and 30 ha of permaculture gardens, orchards and green meadows.

Where we are now
Ecological Land Use and Permaculture
In the last five years immense work has been done on Fazenda PURAVIDA. Permaculture food gardens have been established which has not only increased the diversity of fruits and vegetables available but has also increased biodiversity. An orchard has been established growing a vast variety of fruit trees. At the beginning of 2009, a new ‘food forest’ agroforestry system was started in a degraded pasture land following the principles of permaculture. The active participation of volunteers allowed to finalize the digging of swales on contour and the planting of more than 2000 banana saplings plus pioneer and leguminous species. A nursery has been also created for the fruit trees that will complete the system.

Volunteers
PURAVIDA is a member of WWOOF Brasil (Willing Workers on Organic Farms). During the last couple of years we have enjoyed the presence of many willing workers who have provided many willing hands to help with permaculture gardens, nursery and the new food forest. Volunteers also come through ‘word of mouth’. Volunteers share in the day to day living of the farm of gardening, cooking and cleaning and feedback from our volunteers has been overwhelmingly positive, all expressing their most heartfelt thanks for the ability to spend time truly experiencing ‘living lightly on the earth’.  The reception by the community has also been very warm and the volunteer scheme has provided for a true cultural exchange.

Quote from one of our past volunteers:
“My last weeks working at Brazilian permaculture farm Fazenda Pura Vida held up at last my realisations and future hopes in full rainbow glory. Perched above a clear running river and waterfalls, with a backdrop of rainforest, and in the good company of the farm family, dragonflies, kittens, tarantulas, river fish and horses we lived Pura Vida. Pure Life. Cooking on a rocket stove, planning and digging swales for fruit forest planting, reading/learning endless books on permaculture design by candlelight, and mastering the art of navigating a large dugout canoe! Here the ultimate feeling of ‘connection’ became almost commonplace. A sense I first acknowledged at the age of 15 emerging from a bender tent into a dawn forest landscape, after a nights sleep on a road protest camp and have been chasing ever since. A paradoxical mix of pulsing energy and profound peace, where people, the trees, the air, the sun, the river, forge together to speak one language, of unity. Every element, including myself living in harmonious relation with its neighbour.”
Rosie Strang Feb 2009

Atlantic Rainforest
The “Mata Atlantica” (Atlantic Rainforest) is one of the ‘biodiversity hotspots’ of the earth. It is a region of tropical and subtropical moist forest, tropical dry forest, tropical savannas and mangrove forests which extend along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte state in the north to Rio Grande do Sul state in the south and inland as far as Paraguay and Missiones Province of Argentina. The Atlantic Rainforest is now designated a World Biosphere Reserve and contains a large number of highly endangered species including the marmosets, lion tamarins and woolly spider monkeys. It has been extensively cleared since colonial times, mainly for farming of sugar cane and urban settlements. The remnants is estimated to be approximately 7% of the original, of which only an estimated 2% is primary forest.

NGO PURAVIDA is committed to the preservation of the Atlantic Rainforest and raising awareness in the local community of its importance. The aim is to eventually link up with other farms and create a ‘wildlife corridor’ stretching as far as possible and providing a breathing space for this incredibly diverse and beautiful forest.

Cacao
The cacao plantations on the farm are managed by an administrator working for NGO PURAVIDA and three “parceiros” who have been empowered to take full management responsibility for one assigned “roça” (field) each. They individually organize their work (weeding and maintenance of the field, harvesting, fermenting, drying and selling) since the only requirement from NGO PURAVIDA’s part is that the production is kept organic and absolutely no chemicals are used.

The part of the profits that goes back to the association is dedicated for maintenance of shared resources (fermenting and drying infrastructures, tools, mules…) and for the payment of taxes and legal fees.

Agroforestry Network
Recently NGO PURAVIDA has teamed up with a few other farms in the region with the aim of establishing an Agfroforestry Network that aims to promote and enhance the use of the traditional ‘cabruca’ system to produce cacao that is productive and organic as well as helping to increase biodiversity and preserve rainforest trees. Worldwatch Institute calls this ‘forest cocoa’ and has outlined in a paper how this system could help preserve the Atlantic Rainforest whilst regenerating the local economy:

“By turning a cocoa-growing tradition into an “eco-business,” farmers and investors could help save the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, one of the most biologically diverse and endangered forest biomes in the world. Such an effort could also increase rural employment and help build an economy that can sustain the forest instead of destroying it.
The Atlantic Forest extends along most of Brazil’s coast and is the third largest biome in the country. Although it is not as well known as that other great Brazilian forest, the Amazon, it is far more endangered. Only about 7 percent of the Atlantic Forest remains in its original state.
Cocoa is the basic ingredient of chocolate. It comes from the seeds of a small, tropical rainforest tree, the cacao. Cocoa is of interest to conservation because it is a relatively high-value crop, and because the cacao tree tolerates shade. These qualities allow cocoa to be grown profitably under forest canopy; in effect, cocoa can help pay for rainforest conservation.
Cocoa is already a major crop in the northern part of the Atlantic Forest biome, primarily in the state of Bahia. Most Brazilian cocoa is grown under native forest canopy, in an agroforestry system known as cabruca. Cabruca is hardly virgin forest— its understory consists mostly of cacao trees and its overstory has been extensively thinned. But its value for conservation is now considerable because so little undisturbed forest remains. Cabruca has become, by default, the dominant forest type within the Bahian cocoa belt.
But for several reasons, the cabruca system is in decline. Relatively few forest saplings are coming up in the cabruca patches, so the native forest overstory is not regenerating. And some farmers are growing their cocoa outside cabruca or abandoning the crop altogether. If it continues, the decline of cabruca would greatly diminish the prospects for saving the northern portion of the Atlantic Forest.
We argue that the cabruca system should be revived, but in a form better suited to current conditions. Our strategy, which we call “forest cocoa,” is designed to promote a set of ecological and social goals. Its ecological aims are to ensure that the cabruca patches are regenerating, to eliminate the use of disruptive agricultural chemicals, and to contribute to forest restoration within the cocoa belt. Its social aim is to help create a stronger—and greener—rural economy. Forest cocoa would build employment through local cocoa processing; it would also encourage the development of other forms of ecocommerce, such as forest restoration and ecotourism. Forest cocoa would have a political goal as well: its marketing would be designed to create an international consumer constituency for the forest. That constituency could become a donor base for restoring, not just cabruca, but the Atlantic Forest as a whole.”
(Summary of Worldwatch Institute Survey : “Venture Capitalism for a Tropical Forest”)