Interelos participates in a Strategic Planning Workshop with Amazonbai members
It is undeniable that good planning can reduce the risks of any venture and avoid future problems. Planning in detail is one of the pillars of Instituto Interelos and this can be seen at the beginning of each project, when the team of consultants takes a deep dive into a region in order to listen to local actors. This coordinated dive facilitates the construction of vision, mission and values, in addition to creating more assertive strategies and creative solutions to face the numerous regional challenges. Four years after the creation of the Amazonbai cooperative, when the cooperative members themselves chose açaí as the main production chain to be developed in the territory and the group took important steps towards structuring itself, the time has come to look ahead. Good forward.
The cooperative, which brings together the production of açaí from the territories of Bailique and Beira Amazonas, has been organizing itself to reach greater and greater heights. So far, there have been many advances, such as the construction of the açaí processing agroindustry, the achievement of the FSC® – Forest Stewardship Council® seal for Forest Management (FSC-C131371), Chain of Custody (FSC-C131371) and Ecosystem Services. In addition to the support of the JBS Fund for the Amazon, won in 2021, and the development of a heritage fund pioneer aimed at guaranteeing the self-sufficiency of the Family Schools in the region that promote technical education in the countryside. But what if we think about the coming years? How will these traditional communities be, for example, 10 years from now? What do these people crave? Where do you want to go?
The only people who can answer all these questions are the members themselves. And so, in order to listen carefully to the wishes of that group, the consultants from Instituto Interelos went, in early October, to the OCB (Organization of Amapá Cooperatives) to conduct the first stage Strategic Planning Workshop to prepare together the next steps. There were four days of immersion in which cooperative members were able to discuss issues related to sustainable management, maintenance of certifications, agro-industry management and the social development of the region as a whole.
Using a methodology to design the future in a concrete and palpable way, the institute's facilitation included, as an initial step in the process, a forecast of the challenges they may encounter along the way. Mariana Chaubet, consultant for Interelos, explains the next steps:
“In those days, we built a first stage of Amazonbai's Strategic Planning, now the board and employees will listen in the territories to find out what has already been defined makes sense, obtain contributions and, later, we will have two more meetings to close a proposal that will be taken for approval by the cooperative members at the general meeting, which will take place at the end of January 2022.” Chaubet also points out that this alignment of expectations is fundamental to the success of the project. The result of the planning will be in several dimensions: organizational, marketing, social, environmental and financial. The process will result in a detailed planning of actions that will be monitored by the Interelos Institute together with the Amazonbai management in the coming months.
That in 2031 we can see the fruits of this work together, which values the conservation of the forest, promotes autonomy and encourages the protagonism of the community! And that Amazonbai remains firm in its purpose of becoming a world reference in cooperativism in the Amazon.