Catalyzing regenerative solutions

Activist. Pioneer Entrepreneur. Social Innovator. Founder and Director of Sinal do Vale. Co-Founder of WEDO (Women, Environment and Development Organization),  REDEH (Network for Human Development) and CEMINA (Communication, Education, and Information), which connected women with the potential for radio in Brazil, creating a powerful network of 400 women's radio programs. 

I have received numerous prestigious awards over the decades and published many articles and papers in selected magazines and books worldwide. I have held key positions in major global leadership organizations. I am currently a member of the World Future Council.

I have an MA in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. 

My passionate mission is to create concrete initiatives with tangible results to enhance resilience and community. I foster projects that become platforms for new agents of positive transformation that can heal divides and make a difference to humanity.

The Institute Sinal do Vale is a center for the regeneration of ecosystems, communities, and individuals and a steward of 400 acres  of land  between the urban sprawl of Rio de Janeiro and some of the last protected areas in the Atlantic Forest. After 8 years of experimenting and consolidating our prototypes in the regeneration of foods, forest, soil and communities, we are now co-creating a vision as a regional hub for scaling up regeneration in the peri-urban regions of the Baixada Fluminense around the Guanabara Bay. We intend to accomplish this with the following actions: an integrated landscape regeneration method;  an innovation process offering challenges and opportunities to entrepreneurs that can identify nature-based-solutions to social, environmental and economic social needs;  educational programs to inspire change-agents and local leaders;  a partnership model to articulate public policy and mobilize stakeholders; the purchase of critical land to protect water resources.

The UN has declared that two billion hectares of land are degraded and have to be restored in the next decade. One of the last remaining protected areas of the Atlantic Forest in the mountains of the Serra do Mar that surround the city of Rio de Janeiro is the region where we are located. The Serra da Estrela Bioregion is  in this critical region, on the border of the rapidly growing urban sprawl around the Guanabara Bay of Rio de Janeiro and these forested mountains. The Guanabara Bay water basin is critical for natural resource preservation, as it provides water for the 16-million-person population of Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area, is rich in biodiversity of flora and fauna, and is being increasingly threatened by urban encroachment of the expanding city. The Guanabara Bay water basin is made up of 24 sub water basins with 55 rivers that spring from the forested mountains and drain 200,000 liters of water per second into the Guanabara Bay, most of it polluted by not treated sewage. The peri-urban region around the Guanabara Bay is called the Baixada Fluminense, an area famous for high unemployment, precarious infrastructure, and environmental degradation.

SINAL believes that the world’s ambitious commitments around restoring the social and ecological functions of territories can only be achieved through decentralized land stewardship arrangements. Having grown into an experienced and connected center for regeneration over the last decade, SINAL is ready to expand and take on its role as a steward for the lands and communities in its bioregion - starting with the 1,400 acres in the valley of Santo Antônio and expanding to the rest of the Serra da Estrela bioregion, a 20,000 acres area which includes a state wildlife refuge and its buffer zone. 

SINAL is creating prototypes that integrate diverse knowledge fields to address key challenges of the bioregion: landscape management, forest conservation, food security, health, clean energy, waste management, and water security. Inspired by nature-based solutions, biomimicry and circular economy, we apply global knowledge to our context, putting into practice and experimenting with low-cost solutions using local resources.

Our vision is to replicate and scale up these prototypes in the neighboring communities of our bioregion. In the short-term, SINAL aims to purchase critical adjacent properties to guarantee the immediate security of the water resources and biodiversity that are threatened by the growing urban encroachment.

The Santo Antonio neighborhood, in which SINAL is located, is home to approximately 10,000 mostly low-income residents and is exemplary of urban pressures such as pollution of rivers and water springs due to inappropriate waste management and lack of basic sanitation.   Over the last decade, SINAL has done a number of actions to understand their needs such as diagnosing the waste management and sanitation situation and the need for extra infrastructure. SINAL has connected the neighborhood to a series of environmental protection agencies to assure that land use legislation is respected. 

SINAL is established in the area, which gives us an opportunity for creating a dynamic understanding of the needs and a permanent dialogue with members of the community; the majority of our staff is local and others participate in our forums.  As we scale,we intend to: identify up to 10 geographically-distributed similar neighborhoods in the bioregion whose natural assets and economies show signs of distress; identify appropriate participants with entrepreneurial or leadership potential; and invite up to 10-12 participants from each neighborhood  for a 3-day onboarding workshop to orient them to a larger program in which they will learn to measure health and wellbeing in their particular ecosystem.

Our project addresses the three dimensions of the Elevate prize as it opens opportunities for all people to improve the quality of their lives through nature-based solutions. It enhances awareness by proposing a systemic approach to address complex problems such as the ones that are enfrented by the Guanabara Bay area of Rio de Janeiro.  It proposes the creation of collaborative alliances among diverse teams helping stakeholders to work together across differences, helping to broaden and deepen their understanding of what is happening and what  could happen through transformative action which  can be sustained over time to create permanent change.

The story behind my project is the integration of experiments, acknowledgments, inquiries and deep wishes of my life. I spent two decades exploring the world, participating in movements,  networks and global conferences, creating organizations and implementing initiatives. My main inquiry was on what functions to create positive and constant improvements for large groups of people including other ecosystems of forests and animals.  My conclusion is that real changes are systemic and require collaboration, the elevation of beliefs, behavior, and attitudes that can only happen through a sustained platform or a container which can help people  understand each other. This works better in a territory with geographic, cultural, social and economic identity.   

I created a container (Sinal do Vale) and adopted a territory for this experiment. I started it after realizing that most of the socio and environmental changes that we proposed in official documents, white papers and diagnoses required an unconventional approach to systemic change which could only be achieved with groups of people which trust each other and are interested in collaborating. Fifteen years ago after the Earth Summit I could see that collaborative alliances, systemic insights and transformational action were needed. Sinal was born out these insights.

I am passionate about the creation of platforms that can foster unconventional changes through a systemic approach that involves a diverse group of people, helping them to believe that they can drive change. Sinal do Vale is one of these platforms that allows for these experiments. It helps the refinement of  my own and others’ abilities to care for ourselves, for our communities and for the planet. As I turned 50, I also was concerned to leave a legacy to the next generation and to make what I had learned and what I achieved for their own growth turning into possibilities throughout life.  I am especially interested in young people that are passionate about creating and enduring change. In that sense what I have created here is a school for change agents where theory, concepts, and practical experimentations are integrated.  I love nature, forests, animals and for that reason, the place I chose to establish this platform is a forest under threat of extinction. Through my love and devotion, I inspired the new generation. About 3,000 of them have already come to SINAL to discover and express what they really care for and act to be the drivers of  transformation. 

I have come to the conclusion that it is normally a combination of talents, skills and experiential background that make us succeed in embracing complex challenges we are passionate about.  I am a natural leader and this was already expressed when I was a child. I was very curious and never accepted a rule or a direction without an explanation or a justification I could understand. I also am a creative connector which is manifested in an ability to assemble and reunite things that apparently do not belong to each other or are apart. And third I have a free   determined spirit, ready to  try things that I perceive as true and that can improve the situation for others. 

I did a number of projects in my life, three organizations with a recognized reputation in which I was a founder or co-founder and stayed with them until they reached maturity and I was ready to leave.  By completing full cycles, I learned the qualities and skills which are required to grow from an idea to a collaborative platform. Though my background is on business administration I never worked for profit and to accumulate material wealth for myself. My interest was always to learn how to use my life to benefit the things I care about. 

I always worked in complex situations underserved by financial resources and for that reason I became a skilled problem solver and a mobilizer of resources based more on people’s inner motivations than on financial compensation. 

Perseverance and overcoming obstacles has been a common pattern of my life. It built my courage and ability to embrace change and obstacles as they come.  The difficulties that emerged and I overcame over time have several layers.  The first, is being a woman in a society where land stewardship and ownership is still a male domain. In the region where I came from, I was a pioneer in that position and it posed a reaction and resistance, putting even my life under threat.  I faced and endured through this challenge by creating benefits that were visible to the community. This changed over time their prejudices.  

The second difficulty was choosing an area for the project which is underserved and where there are no references of initiatives out of the status quo, which is predominantly driven by landowners which are extractivist and only care for their self-interests. For many years Sinal do Vale was an initiative that people did not understand. Enduring solitude requires mobilizing outside resources.  We did that at SINAL, especially with the young generations.  Finally, I also face the difficulty of the uncertainties of my country and the lack of political commitment with environmental and social policies.

I am in my 60’s  which also allows me to have several accomplishments that prove my leadership capacity which is expressed in movements and networks, organizations, and projects I created. The young people who come to SINAL are also inspired by my role model.  The several awards that I received personally and the organizations I created, confirm this evidence: 2005 World Championship on Environment was given to WEDO. Also in 2005, CEMINA received the Silicon Valley award of Technologies that benefit humanity. REDEH was awarded by the Brazilian government for the project Adapta Sertao for its contribution to the implementation of the Millenium Development Goals. I was awarded as the 2001 Woman of the Year in Brasil and also received awards in Rio de Janeiro and Duque de Caxias. 

The combination of movements, networks, organizations and projects which I led,  has built a reputation which helps to rely upon a vast social capital which is an asset  to aspire for more ambitious projects as the current one that addresses complex challenges of a whole region. 
I think the accomplishment of a land stewardship model the consensual needs  of our times could offer an inspiration to be followed.

A systemic approach for regenerative development of a bioregion with the potential to be scaled to  the whole Guanabara Bay area is  unique and disruptive.  

SINAL believes that the world’s ambitious commitments around restoring the social and ecological functions of territories can only be achieved through decentralized land stewardship arrangements based on nature-based solutions and innovative social technologies that mobilize resources and build bridges between sectors, local and global stakeholders. 

As a regeneration hub in the Serra da Estrela bioregion, SINAL has and continues to build relationships as part of what it calls the “social fabric,”  which is the ecosystem of local and global actors needed to activate and sustain regeneration in the area. Locally, it is part of the Council of the Wildlife Refuge, who views SINAL as an incubator for regeneration prototypes that can be replicated within the Refuge. SINAL has been chosen as the principal field site for the Golden Lion Tamarin NGO, Pantharpia, in which endangered species and other fauna will be monitored in the valley. In that regard, SINAL will be used as an international educational campus for biodiversity research and scientific tourism. SINAL was selected by IUCN as one of the 10 projects around the world to participate in their innovative finance for restoration incubator, in which they sponsored several landscape regeneration prototypes and the creation of a business model for our fruits from the forest processing plant.

Until now, SINAL has directly impacted 3,500 people through our social and environmental initiatives, educational programs, and hospitality services. With the expansion of our waste management project Clean Village this year, we will impact an additional 500 people. Given the scope of the larger project for promoting regenerative solutions in the bioregion, we hope to impact another 10,000 people directly and estimate that 60,000 will be meaninfully affected.  

If we also consider our like-minded partners in the Guanabara Bay area, the impact is much higher. Each one of them work as a hub catalyzing action in that specific area. If we consider and cover the whole region, we can estimate that our impact reaches a million people. 

I agree that the world needs new global heroes. New references of leadership and entrepreneurship, sensitive to gender, race, culture and age. At 63 years old, I fit some of these categories. I have been a global activist and leader of the feminist and environmental movement. Having this historical background, my style and perspective are different. I cultivate a relational, intergenerational culture in which technical skills are as much appreciated and honored as skills learned through a person’s life’s work. Soft and inner skills which build bridges among diverse people are essential and promoted as part of the project I lead. 

The name SINAL stands for synchronicity, innovation and joy - three principles embodied at the initiative. Nature and the context of the project show the way are part of what we follow; innovation and disruptive solutions are at the heart of what we seek to embrace; and joy makes us thrive together using the collective work also to build partnerships and collaboration that goes beyond the scope of work. 

The impact we aim to achieve is to create a model to inspire and to be followed, showing that ambitious goals can be achieved if broken into cells.  Each one of these cells can be  catalyzer of change in their  own bioregions. 

Very ambitious goals inhibit the willingness of people to engage in change. The visualization of small cells make it possible for entrepreneurs to engage.  This is our theory of change.

As we envision a systemic change, the barriers are also systemic as they are present in every aspect of what we want to achieve.  The most critical in the next year is to prevent the depletion of natural resources which is the basis for any sustained transformation. In that regard the most critical barrier is our ability to secure critical land, especially the ones that have water resources. 

Technically we need people that are able to address the complex challenges to restore soil and forest with models which are disruptive and also contemplate people’s needs for agriculture, including old cultural habits of raising animals and so on.  Isolated expertise which stand alone no long work.  This often is a barrier as it is difficult for most people to release their identities and old belief systems.  Unconventional methods of learning and doing are required besides patience and perseverance so people can adapt to the new realities. 

Legally, we need new frames for land ownership as most of the areas we want to protect do not have an adequate approach or mechanisms that help the transition.  Support is needed as we scale what we already have done in our lands. Some of the products we are launching in the market such as jackfruit as a substitute for meat require a sustained branding strategy as it is an innovation and need to be known.

For the next five years, I anticipate barriers of addressing these same issues as we scale to other areas.

SINAL is certified as an Advanced Post of the Atlantic Forest Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO and a Global Ecosphere Retreat by the Long Run Initiative, making it one of 17 in the world. We monitor  social and environmental impacts based on 86 criteria established by the Long Run Initiative to promote best practices for centers of excellence of sustainability. Since 2015, SINAL has partnered with TRANS4M Center for Integral Development, in Geneva, Switzerland, for the development of the curriculum for the SINAL School for Change Agents. Associated with St. Gallen University, TRANS4M is a local global community of transformation agents that translate integral development into innovative solutions and regenerative practices. The Serra Estrela Wildlife Refuge, of which SINAL is a council member, and the APA Petropolis, a federally sanctioned protected area, are key partners for the diagnostic, mapping, and strengthening of the social fabric of the bioregion as well as for the implementation of environmental protection policies.  SINAL has partnered with The Do School, an school of entrepreneurship powered by a community of DOers and experts from 100 + countries to champion innovative solutions to world problems.  SINAL is also a sister organization of  SEKEM, a  holistic enterprise and global pioneer of an ecologically, socially and ethically sound economic paradigm in Egypt. We are one of 13 bioregional hubs part of the Regenerative Communities Network, a global network connected wiht the Capital Institute,  a partner with Regeneration International, which promotes the global transition to regenerative food, farming and land management.

Currently SINAL has a blended revenue model to finance its operational costs and the incubation and advancement of the above mentioned activities:

(1) Hospitality and Educational services: SINAL provides hospitality and educational services to a variety of corporations, institutions, universities, and various other types of groups (both Brazilian and international). Revenue is generated through the use of SINAL’s  infrastructure of houses and event centers, hospitality services (culinary & logistics),  educational content and workshops based on SINAL’s fields of action, facilitation and mentoring of students. These revenues cover SINAL’s operational costs to maintain its infrastructure and current team. 

(2) Grants from donors for incubation of specific social and environmental impact projects: SINAL receives smaller donations to support and incubate its socio-environmental projects on a local scale, such as the waste management project in the local community of Santo Antonio, the environmental education programs with children from low income areas, the landscape regeneration prototypes and seed funding for its regenerative business prototypes.

We are envisioning the establishment of a fund to create the conditions for a land stewardship strategy and regenerative economy on a bioregional level in the long term. The fund’s principal purpose is the creation of holistic wealth by providing seed capital for promising regenerative businesses and projects throughout the bioregion. Its secondary purpose is the purchase of critical land containing essential water resources and biodiversity to secure it on the short term from growing urban encroachment. The way in which the fund will be set up and operate is still being explored and currently, an initial concept is being developed.  

A legally registered independent board will be set with the function of supervising the operation and the allocation of funds. The fund should provide an integrated capital spectrum of blended finance - from pure philanthropy to commercial - customized specifically to each initiative's needs. The initiatives funded will be incubated and meticulously vetted in the regeneration business hub to make them ready for investment. To provide a vast, diverse, and strong portfolio of projects to be funded, the initiatives will be grouped in thematic hubs. To provide transparency and comparability between the initiatives, a unified framework of evaluation will be created to measure their integral impact and potential financial return.

SINAL is designing this strategy with other partners geared to help design funding strategies that incorporate a new integral regenerative approach to investment theory. 

SINAL is partnering with Capital Labs, as part of Capital Institute to design this strategy.

We believe in the principles of the Elevate Prize and feel we can benefit from the support it offers.  In the post covid phase we are facing many challenges in Brazil. The dismantling of environment and social policies, lack of public investment, increasing poverty.  Mobilization of societal resources is critical to continue elevating  opportunities for all people, identifying solutions and driving actions to solve problems, enhancing understanding and collaboration among key actors in the area.

We believe you can offer support to overcome our key barriers, such as funding your network of contacts and resources, talent recruitment which can help us to bridge the gaps of technical capacities we do not have access to. We would benefit from: mentorship and coaching to the local leaders, board members and coaches that can act as brokers of our efforts, legal advise given the complex situation of land and other natural resources in our region, monitoring and evaluation to assure transparency and reliable information and marketing, and media and exposure so we can build a narrative and a story to be shared. 

Internationally, we would like to partner with American universities like MIT to bring students and professors to SINAL through learning journeys and student programs - both gaining access to knowledge and research being performed at top universities while providing a platform for this knowledge to be applied. Locally, we intend to partner with major companies and businesses to support our projects in the local communities. For example, Coca Cola has installed one of Latin America’s largest bottling plants just several kilometers from Sinal do Vale, buying rights to the water for the next 60 years. We plan to propose a partnership with the company in which they would financially support the reforestation of degraded areas to protect the water resources and biodiversity. Petrobras, the largest oil company in Brazil, also has a refinery in the city in which Sinal do Vale is located; we seek to receive financial support as well for community development projects in the region. SINAL also intends to partner with public institutions that are essential for the scaling up and replication of our prototypes - such as with the Ministry of Agriculture for training landowners and farmers in our regenerative landscape management methods and the Ministry of Education for adopting healthy eating in the schools with the use of jackfruit, a regional, abundant and nutritious food that is underutilized in the country.