Biodiversity & Sustainability in Brazil

Suzana M. Padua is a Brazilian environmental educator with PhD from University of Brasilia and master’s from University of Florida. She is the president of IPE - Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas (Institute for Ecological Research), a Brazilian organization she co-founded in 1992, dedicated to conservation of biodiversity and sustainability. Her conservation education programs reach broad audiences, including students, mid-career professionals and decision makers. She also co-founded IPE’s education center, ESCAS, which offers short courses, master’s and MBA degrees to Brazilian professionals and other Latin American countries. She has published widely and has contributed to governmental and non-governmental environmental education and sustainability projects. Suzana is an Ashoka fellow, UBS Global Visionary, Folha de São Paulo and a Schwab Social Entrepreneur together with her husband Claudio; they were both featured as Heroes of the Planet by Time magazine (2002). She has received a number of other major awards in Brazil and abroad.

We founded IPE in 1992 because of needs not being met in the conservation of Brazil’s biodiversity. The demands are plentiful in a megadiverse country of continental size. Some needs include: studies on endangered species, recovery of habitats by planting native trees, alternatives to improve underprivileged communities’ lives through sustainable practices, and education of professionals in interdisciplinary fields to deal with whatever new crises emerge. IPE has been in the vanguard in applying interdisciplinary approaches, translating theory into practical solutions, identifying common goals to link different social sectors, and creating a school, ESCAS, to prepare professionals adequately. We need to disseminate successful outcomes to inspire others and influence policies to scale up what we now know is needed. We intend to strengthen IPE’s education branch to include more themes, audiences and techniques, so we can scale up the distribution of highly trained, quality professionals throughout Brazil and Latin America. 

Brazil is megadiverse and its ecological integrity affects the planet through its impact on climate and species richness, in fluctuations in fresh water abundance and in the high value of regional cultures. Unfortunately, these important factors have not been valued, so losses have been historical. Last year Amazon deforestation was unprecedented, and other biomes also were damaged through unregulated human  activities. Depletion of nature affects rainfall and creates water shortages, which translate into agricultural losses and subsequent increased poverty. The resulting rural exodus has enlarged urban centers with unemployment, violence and illnesses, mainly due to crowding and bad sanitary conditions.  

The importance of nature conservation and biodiversity protection due to these circumstances is unrecognized. Biodiversity occurs in rural areas, while urban centers determine priorities. Natural ecosystems have rarely been recognized or measured for their economic, social and environmental values, and have been replaced by seemingly more “profitable” products, such as cattle, soy plantations and other monocultures.  

However, Brazil is one of the few countries with the potential of becoming a model of economic sustainability.  To do so will require changes in the mindset of decision makers, which will depend on well-prepared professionals with evidence-based solutions and the courage to innovate.

IPE began studying the black-lion tamarin at a time when it was listed among the world’s ten most endangered species. Soon it became clear that we needed to expand our field of action to raise people’s awareness of the importance of conservation by offering environmental education programs to thousands of students and community members, and by introducing sustainable alternatives to underprivileged people. Moreover, recover degraded areas and protect original forests by planting native trees (IPE has planted more than 3.2 million), which help  promote participatory planning that empowers communities and influence local, regional, and national policies. Education at different levels and fields led IPE to create an education center, ESCAS, to respond to some of these needs (to date, around 6.000 students have attended short courses and 144 have completed their master’s degrees).  

Brazil has six major biomes, which require a mass of professionals with this system-wide, holistic thinking. Conservation and sustainability are complex concepts and demand multifaceted solutions, neither taught in traditional institutions nor in the field. Interdisciplinary approaches are often easier said than done, but IPE has been integrating environmental, social, economic and political fields, sharing learning through ESCAS/IPE to form a new kind of environmental change professional.

We started community work in late 1980s in Western São Paulo (the State’s second poorest region), increasing people’s awareness of the importance of the Atlantic Forest of the Interior, a rich but endangered ecosystem, also introducing profitable practices that protected the environment. This taught us the importance of involving local people in all stages of conservation projects. There, a rural immigration of thousands of impoverished families of the “Landless Movement” arrived to occupy land to live in. IPE has worked with more than 400 of these families, offering workshops on tree nurseries, medicinal plants, agroforestry systems, reforestation, handicrafts that focus on nature, turning their debt situation into lucrative ventures.

In Nazaré Paulista (IPE’s headquarters) for more than 20 years the focus has been water, as we border the Cantareira system that provides water to around 9 million people. IPE has introduced rotational cattle and crop management to 200 farmers, doubling incomes while protecting watersheds. In Amazonia, IPE works with around 40,000 people in more than 80 protected areas, many having learned to collect data on species they use and sell sustainably, like fish, turtles or Brazil nuts. Moreover, our ESCAS/IPE students work throughout Brazil and Latin America with countless communities.

From what I gather, Elevate seeks people who do – who transform. IPE has been a “hatcher” of socio-environmental entrepreneurs. We founded IPE with horizontal instead of hierarchical structure, so personal empowerment is the basis for people to flourish and activate their personal talents. I may be one, and Claudio, my husband, another, but the number of leaders go way beyond, which makes the organization strong. One indicator is the many awards or national and international recognition the institution and team members have received for work well done (more than 40 awards, besides mine and Claudio’s – another 40).

I come from an upper-middle class family from Rio and my father was a big-game hunter who always took us to natural areas. The love of nature grew within me. I married Claudio Padua, who graduated from business college, but switched fields to conservation to help save the country’s biodiversity. I was then a designer and only focused on environmental education when we went to live in the forest so Claudio could collect data for his doctoral dissertation, which focused on a very endangered primate, the black-lion tamarin. I understood the importance of environmental education when it became clear that people needed to change their mindsets, if wildlife was to survive. The losses have been continuous and mostly caused by unsustainable practices. I felt the urge to sensitize and raise people’s awareness and re-enchant them with nature, and this became my life’s purpose. We founded IPE with a similar mission, applying science and integrating social, environmental and economic aspects, which is not common in Brazil. The lack of professionals to deal with the country’s megadiversity led us to establish a school within IPE, ESCAS, to help form professionals who can respond to the complexities that are abundant in the field. 

I came to understand that we are nature and whatever occurs to the natural world reverberates on us. Today we are responsible for most of what happens to the natural environments, though people seem unaware of the consequences of their actions. With human concentration in urban centers nature has become even more remote. This may seem simplistic, but consequences can be serious and often irreversible. I have witnessed losses for decades, such as increases in the endangered species list, deforestation, water pollution and shortages or soil depletion and impacts of climate change on all aspects of life. I soon felt I had to be part of the solution, so we founded IPE with a small team in 1992. We had no idea our passions were contagious, but we have had more young people wishing to join the institution than we can accommodate. Perhaps a strong reason is that we encourage everyone to study, which empowers and brings self-satisfaction. Due to shortage of trained professionals in applied sciences in Brazil, a discrepancy to the abundance of nature everywhere, we established our school, ESCAS, with the aims of filling this gap. My personal life and that of IPE-ESCAS have been inseparable.  

I have changed professions because the first (design) was a choice I fancied when young, the second (environmental education) a passion that came with a purpose worth living for. I deepened my knowledge when we went to the University of Florida, after living in the forest for three and a half years and falling in love with this new field. The University accepted me as a master’s student so I could become better prepared to do more with more quality. We founded IPE upon returning to Brazil in 1992 with a small group of young scientists and educators, whom we always encouraged to pursue graduate work. This resulted in a strong team of highly-qualified professionals in different fields. Years later I also completed my Ph.D. at the University of Brasilia, because by then we had established a school within IPE, ESCAS, to spread the knowledge we had gained and the lessons learned from the field. The idea has always been to prepare professionals integrating theory and practice to carry on projects throughout the country that incorporate conservation and sustainability. The needs seem to increase over time, and more people must be prepared to face the challenges. 

 Throughout my life I have been able to turn many challenges into opportunities to benefit many. For example, I encourage that all difficulties be analyzed so others can avoid making the same mistakes. This can happen through courses, lectures, interviews or articles, as long as we disseminate how best solve problems that emerge.  

I faced many challenges throughout life, which happens to all, especially those who go against the tides. I certainly did.  As a woman from a traditional Brazilian family, I was not demanded to study. It was “cute” to attend a university and have a profession. But this gave me the advantage of choosing what I wanted and afterwards seeking a job that gave me independence. From then onward, I discovered the strength I had within and that I could not be easily stopped. When Claudio, my husband, switched professions, for three years I sustained our household alone (unheard of in both our families), already having our three children. As we moved to the forest (interior of Sao Paulo) the change was tremendous from my original lifestyle: a lack of quality in housing, education for my kids, and healthcare. I contracted leishmaniosis and seriously considered packing to leave. Gradually, however, I began developing environmental education activities in the Park where we lived and community-based activities like music festivals, drawing contests and radio programs, all valuing regional nature. This served as the basis for all challenges that followed, but brought me hope, strength and determination to do more and never give up.

I have been seen as leader since childhood – a small woman with strong guts. Part of what I do is inspire others to study and dare follow dreams that can bring collective benefits. Many people with great potentials have no opportunities. Gracinha, for example, came as a student intern to our environmental education program, but was the first with university and master’s degrees in her family. As an IPE coordinator she helped changed education policies in western Sao Paulo. I asked her how to answer this question and heard hordes of praises: how after a few months the forest, before considered a nuisance, became a source of pride to the community; the same in Nazaré Paulista with the water reservoir, which people loathed for having flooded their lands when built, but now see as needing protection. I often meet people who say I changed their lives and careers. Like Gracinha, many in our team  play a role of inspiring others, so we can have a continuity in the leadership empowerment process in forming new leaders. Coordinators are free to conduct their projects but what guides us is the wish to help people see life (human or nature) as precious.    

Innovation is in all  we do and is even part of our mission: IPE’s Mission is to develop and disseminate innovative models of biodiversity conservation and socio-economic development through science, education and sustainable business. Much was not done before, or not with the quality or results we have had. For example, the planting of trees to form corridors or strips to boarder natural fragments and protect them from too much wind, sunshine or fires is commonly recognized as important, but rarely done. Why? This needs communities’ involvement, training people on which trees to plant where, and how to care for them till they are on their own. There are techniques we developed to do it right, as different species need more or less exposure to the sun, and are planted to resemble original forests.

Please watch: https://youtu.be/efyr_LNT6z4 

Education is another field of IPE’ expertise. Education is in all we do and to all segments of society we work with. For communities we offer what is pertinent, as workshops on handicrafts (with focus in nature), water management and farming techniques, how to avoid fires, or recover degraded areas. For businesses we have games on sustainability for employees. For ESCAS’ students, we integrate them to projects and solving real problems, so learning has practical experience besides theoretical classes, with social and environmental aspects as inseparable, and often economic and policies too. Communication has also adopted innovative models as our aim is to enchant people to protect nature and adopt sustainable practices.

IPE began small and with a single mission: to save biodiversity in Brazil, at first focusing on the black-lion tamarin from extinction. As time went by, we realized how complex conservation was, as we had to protect it’s the species habitat, improve and restore forest fragments, and, the most critical, involve local communities in all the processes being conducted. Without people’s support, the chances of success were practically null, so we developed different ways to engage diverse audiences. This led us to broaden the scope of our actions and add new fields in ways that one complements the others. That was how we ended up with IPE’s Conservation Model, besides participatory methodologies to deal with communities, as seen in IPE’s home page: https://ipe.org.br/en/ipe-en/strategies.  

There is a systematic chain of topics that are integrated into our common goals. Over time we became more inclusive, so our mission statement changed several times during our existence. Last year we went through a strategic planning process and realized that the entire institution had a system change approach, only verifiable when you reflect on what has really happened. The result can be seen in the chart that is in IPE’s web page: https://ipe.org.br/en/ipe-en/strategies.  

The logical framework related to our theory of change is composed by 17 groups of key activities that are developed through the field sites, thematic projects, IPE’s school, ESCAS, and the Sustainable Business Unit. Examples of these groups of activities include: agroforestry systems; landscape restoration; education; engagement of local communities; applied conservation research; productive chains, among others. There are 12 groups of immediate outputs. Examples of the outputs include: planted trees; people receiving capacity building opportunities; business models; and long-term partnerships. Our theory of change is composed by 11 immediate outcomes and 5 intermediary outcomes. They include: applied biodiversity conservation in Brazil; improved conservation status of endangered species; protected areas consolidated; environmental policies benefited from IPÊs activities; and, sustainable and responsible uses of landscape. Finally, the broader impact derived from the outcomes is “Biodiversity conservation with socio-environmental benefits”.

In 2019 more than 15,000 people have benefited from the various activities developed through IPE’s projects and its educational branch, ESCAS. This includes: 390 small landholders converting or adopting more sustainable practices of agriculture and agroforestry; technical assistance, capacity building and engagement of 3,700 people in nature-based solutions in the Amazon forest; 220 professionals involved in socioenvironmental projects; and, 9,400 people reached by our environmental education initiatives. Next year the number of benefited people will be around 20,000, and our goal for the next 5 years is to reach approximately 100,000 people.

IPE is numbers can be seen at: https://www.ipe.org.br/en/ipe-...

The numbers mentioned above refer to direct benefits. However, it is important to emphasize that the indirect benefits are way beyond, considering ESCAS and IPE’s projects that have the purpose of irradiating innovative model and lessons learned throughout Brazil and some Latin American countries. We intend to improve our communication skills and reach more people in different ways. For example, last year we started social media campaigns to make conservation more accessible to all. So far, we have reached around 50.000 people in FB and around 50.000 in Instagram, but with intensification we anticipate doubling or tripling this number. This is especially important because a positive outcome of the Covid-19 crisis in Brazil has been seen in philanthropy. This has expanded as women and young people are willing to engage more in helping causes that go beyond health. This is a promising field we intend to delve in.  

IPE has some goals that were identified in our last strategic planning that occurred in 2019. They are as follows.  

The Planning

 IPE’s aims at promoting 8 key transformations in the society:

• Highlight biodiversity conservation in Brazil
• Promote sustainable landscape
• Influence policies for education
• Conserve biodiversity   
• Improve the conservation status of black-lion tamarins
• Reach all segments with conservation and sustainability principles
• Have transforming agents throughout Brazil
• Consolidate Protected areas

 The challenges for the next 5 years are the following:

• Share knowledge with decision makers
• Conduct research on economy and sustainability
• Articulate decision and policy makers
• Consolidate sustainable development in agroforestry systems
• Chanel IPE’s expertise in landscape planning
• Professionalize agents in Rural Extension Technical Assistance in Conservation
• Promote innovation in the management of protected areas
• Maintain and amplify studies in biodiversity
• Increase sustainable businesses impact
• Develop and strengthen productive chains
• Invest and monitor social media communication to reach new audiences for conservation and sustainability

Socio-biodiversity in Brazil is under severe threats. One of the major factors is a serious misunderstanding that economic development is not compatible with environmental conservation. Examples can be observed on the fires occurred in the Amazon forest in 2019 and 2020. This mindset must be urgently shifted to ensure a healthy and safe environment for future generations. The main obstacles for fostering this change are: 1) Lack of opportunities of capacity building in various areas of sustainability for leaders or future leaders, who can occupy key positions in governments, private companies, academia and NGOs; 2) Insufficient communication and dissemination of cases of success and innovative models that can contribute to biodiversity conservation.  

We partner with government agencies, responsible for protected areas and indigenous territories, but do not depend on their funds. On the contrary, we design projects together, but raise what is needed to implement the priorities identified.  

Our sources of fund vary, which is advantageous, but we continuously seek new strategies. Two project coordinators recently received Whitley Awards that guarantee their projects for a year. This is especially important as donors are also on crisis due to Covid-19, and some have reduced their support.  

Partnerships with the private sector are valuable sources of support that allow us to do more and reach new audiences, often influencing decisions. We have some partnerships and are prospecting more. 

We intend to expand social media campaigns because of its potential, especially evidenced after the changes caused by Covid-19. This is undoubtedly promising.

IPE is strategically skilled to contribute to develop new mindsets for reversing the trends of unsustainable development, considering that our core activities include: 1) daring innovative models of conservation and development; and 2) disseminating these models and the lessons learned.

We are applying to the Elevate Prize with two targets in mind: (1) the development of a strategy to communicate to broad and some specific audiences about the innovative models of biodiversity conservation and sustainable development that derive from our projects. This strategy will include a communication platform, composed by talks, lives, publications, social media campaigns and other forms that can lead our researchers and educators to share their results to benefit a much broader public; (2) the filling a serious financial gap that exists in terms of access to opportunities of capacity building by people who, besides being mission driven towards sustainability and with entrepreneurial profile, do not have financial resources to ingress into our master program on environmental conservation and sustainability. 

IPE’s profile is better known as an organization with a team of “doers”, who can change challenging realities no matter how hard they seem to be. We work in very difficult contexts, but we have been able to improve people’s livelihoods and at the same time enhance the environment. This is the case in all of our sites where people are poor and environment rich. Therefore our solutions benefit both humans and nature and all lessons learned are shared through education and communication strategies.

We work closely with the following organizations: 

Governments 

ICMIO: federal environmental agency in charge of protected areas.

FUNAI: federal agency in charge of indigenous peoples’ issues.

Regional Education Secretaries – that support our initiatives and encourage our projects.

Sao Paulo Forestry Foundation: state agency responsible for protected areas in São Paulo.

Land Institute of Sao Paulo: state agency responsible for agrarian reform and land use issues.  

International Aid:

USAID: The United States Agency for International Development.  

Private sector:

Havaianas – rubber flip-flop sandals, stamps Brazilian species on the soles and IPE receives a percentage for each pair sold of the collection  (16 years of partnership).

Tribanco – every time this bank’s credit card is used one cent goes to IPE.

Danone – different partnerships over the years that have reverberated nationally and internationally.

Natura (cosmetics company): we plant native forests with carbon neutralizing purpose of the company’s activities.  

Civil Society:

International

International Union for the Conservation of Nature – IUCN.

Education for Nature – WWF US.

Gordan and Betty Moore Foundation.

More than 30 zoos in Europe and USA.  

National - We partner with many according to the themes. 

 Academia:

Columbia University and Colorado State University - for almost 20 years and 10 years respectively - students come to ESCAS for summer courses on environment.

University of Florida, also a partner.

Yale University we have joint projects for the past two years.

In Brazil we also partner with educational centers that vary according to the interests and themes.

IPE began with specific projects that expanded. The first site, Atlantic Forest of Western São Paulo State,  went from scientific studies on black lion tamarins and other endangered species to environmental education, community involvement with sustainable alternatives for poor families, regional planning (production of a Dream Map), recovery of habitats and influencing policies - resulting on IPE’s Conservation Model (https://ipe.org.br/en/ipe-en/strategies). This site was a learning lab on how to work according to contexts.

 A summary of IPE's strategies (https://ipe.org.br/en/ipe-en/strategies).

• Site programs - we rarely leave a region, but expand to complement our original aim. So, to protect an endangered species we involve people, governments and, when possible, influence policies. We now conduct projects in the Atlantic Forest, Amazon, Pantanal and Cerrado.
• Thematic approach – we expanded our work to themes, as more general problems became evident, such as climate change effects, carbon emissions that could be compensated, and others.
• Sustainable Business Unit – we created this Unit to establish partnerships with the private sector, identifying needs, opportunities and nurturing ongoing initiatives that encourage Brazilians to value its nature (examples: Havaianas/IPE – rubber flip-flop sandals stamped with Brazilian species that gives IPE a percentage of the revenue; Tribanco, a bank that gives us a cent when their credit card is used, or projects with Danone).
• Education - because it became clear that education was the basis for change, we founded ESCAS, IPE’s school (short courses, master’s and MBA), to prepare professionals in multiple fields to achieve tangible results.

IPE’s financial sustainability and its business model rely on the following:

1) The responsibility of fundraising is shared among all of IPE’s team. When a new professional or trainee joins IPE’s team, he/she receives mentorship from experienced staff. Besides the role of transmitting institutional values and providing technical support, mentors help the new professionals to improve their fundraising skills. The permanence of IPE’s professionals in the team depends on their fundraising success for maintaining the projects in which they are involved and in their good work. Therefore, staff members share responsibilities that empowers them to be leaders.

2) All projects destine 10% of their budget to administration and institutional costs (overhead).

3) Considering that the 10% projects’ overheads are not sufficient to cover the administrative costs, IPE designed a structure to raise institutional funds through its Sustainable Business Unit, responsible for developing strategic partnerships with the private sector and prospecting individual contributions, media campaigns and other innovative initiatives.

4) There are three main sources of income that maintain IPE’s educational branch, ESCAS: (1) tuition paid by the students; (2) financial support obtained from donors for certain courses or scholarships; and (3) an endowment fund that has been created specifically for IPE’s educational activities, which has its own governance and is administered by a wealth management company. 

5) More recently we started social media campaigns, still with timid results, but promising perspectives.  

DONORS                                                U$

NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS                 238,000

INTERNATIONAL GOVERNMENTS        600,000

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS   1,550,000

NACIONAL ORGANIZATIONS                58,000

INDIVIDUALS – IN BRAZIL                   130,000

NATIONAL COMPANIES                      632,000

INDIVIDUALS - INTERNATIONAL           22,600

INTERNATIONAL COMPANIES               62,000

TOTAL                                        3,292,000

A graph of IPE's fundings can be seen at:

https://ipe.org.br/en/ipe-en/funders-partners

We are seeking U$500,000 from Elevate Prize. This amount will be split in 2 main investments:

• One investment of U$250,000 in the development of a platform for communicating and disseminating innovative models of socio-biodiversity conservation and sustainability. This will include the establishment of a periodical publication named “Techincal series of IPÊ” that are lessons learned from the field and can influence policies; a series of lives, talks, seminars for researchers and educators from IPE to strategically divulge their work towards key decision makers in Brazil and social media campaign.
• One investment of U$250,000 for enabling people with innovation and entrepreneurial soul to attend opportunities of capacity building offered by ESCAS.    

IPE’s projects seek funds continuously, but the institution sees the need to strengthen important fields, that are exemplified as follows:  

• Publication of technical series
• Social media campaign, as the moment demands new communication outreach;  
• Thematic forums with different stakeholders to share scientific information that can be helpful for decisions that have collective gains.
• Forest restoration for water protection in the Cantareira Water System;
• Scholarships for students with entrepreneurial profiles but lack funds to cover their studies at ESCAS;
• Communities’ capacity building in agroforestry techniques that can protect and enhance nature and improve people’s lives.

3,2 million dollars

I was encouraged by the UBS Global Visionaris to apply. As I delved into the proposal and saw the profile the Elevate Prize was looking for, I felt that many of us at IPE were aligned with the expectations, as we have entrepreneurs who are passionate and dedicated to the cause. So, why not go for it and try? As I say to our team, there is always a 50% chance of a yes, as a no is guaranteed if we do not try.  

We need unrestricted funds to invest in what we feel is opportune. For example, we now feel the taste of social media as a powerful communication vehicle and the reasons are many: we reach new audiences with our mission; among the new “readers” are young people who aim to have a purpose in life and not only personal success; we engage women, who in many instances are unfortunately not that included into decisions, and with our small sample so far, have been predominant; and, this is a new venue that IPE cannot be absent from. 

Part of the resources from Elevate Prize will be destined to offer support and scholarships for students and professionals to attend ESCAS courses and capacity building programs that can foster their role as socioenvironmental leaders. Sharing knowledge will also happen through bridging the good practices and knowledge gained through IPE’s projects with people, institutions and regions that urgently require stimulus for building new mindsets related to development and sustainability.

IPE works in remote areas so for many years we were not too known, except among environmentalists. Over the years, we gained a great deal of credibility and in many ways became reference for using scientific knowledge that we gather to implement solutions. Therefore, our accumulated knowledge  needs to be shared.

Furthermore, the moment demands innovative ways to communicate, so we must better understand marketing, social media impacts and how our knowledge can be translated to influence people's mindsets and policies. For example, our “Technical Series” can be delivered in many ways and to diverse audiences. These are technical publications on "how to", but written in a palatable way so many segments of society can take advantage of them. If we only publish scientific papers, which we do, we run the risk of only reaching the "converted", of only speaking to peers, and not to board audiences and decision makers.

We do not have names of potential partners, but from our experience partners need to be aligned with our cause and mission in order to get the necessary engagement that makes things happen. We have a number of partners, some for specific projects, while others support the organization. But we feel the need to expand, especially due to the uncertainly of the world’s scenario. The more diversified we can get support from, the better we can face adversities and unexpected changes. We need to leverage and scale up the way of delivering our mission, for example, with messages on the value of conservation and sustainability in Brazil, and how education can play a critical role that deserves investments. If we can gather partners that believe in this cause, we are sure we can do much more.