Project Summary: Describe your contribution in one sentence
Meli is a network empowering indigenous and local communities in vulnerable areas in a peer to peer manner and connecting them with partners (donators, funders, B-corps, experts, etc.) to support the communities' regenerative practices (agroforestry, native beekeeping, bioeconomy, storytelling, etc.) with social and environmental positive impact, leading a bottom-up movement of climate justice.
What are the additional countries or territories of impact?
We are planning activities in Mexico and Nepal and we are starting connections in Colombia, Jamaica and India.
Challenge Focus: What topic does your project most directly relate to?
Creating inclusive pathways for people to contribute towards building a sustainable world
Website URL(s) or social media handles
https://www.meli-bees.org/
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve?
The problem is the lack of empowerment of indigenous and local communities shown by their little engagement and representation even in projects taking place in their own territory.
Meli started in the "Arc of Deforestation", location where most deforestation in the Amazon historically takes place. Coming from that region, we know environmental crimes are often related to crimes against human rights (modern slavery, multiple cultural losses, death threats, etc.), extreme examples of the lack of communities’ empowerment.
While growing our network to other regions, we saw similar behaviour in multiple areas, particularly affecting indigenous communities. The international audience could see that in a concrete manner with the death of Dom Phillips (British journalist) and Bruno Pereira. But cases like that are sadly recurrent in the communities – more than 50 Guajajara were killed in the last 20 years.
That’s why our activities are primarily concerned on enabling communities to act on regenerative activities with local social and environmental positive impact, potentializing multiple grassroots green changemakers. Our program Pollinating Regeneration is an example: the communities were the actors moving the projects since their ideation phase. We understand the communities are not only the location where our activities are taking place, but also who should lead the activities.
Your connection and commitment: How close are you to the problem and/or the community impacted?
My mother gave me the indigenous heritage that allowed me seeing how the cultural colonization violently affected the two generations that came before me. My father brought me the connection with the land, permaculture and social movements. In that manner, I grow up very aware of the complexities of the agrarian conflicts and seeing the problems of the erasure of indigenous culture in my own family (loss of language and religion, alcoholism, racism, etc.), as well problems related to agrarian conflicts (my father was death threatened for multiple times due to his work with smallholders). These experiences helped me to deeply connect with the (now more than 50) communities that are a part of Meli’s network.
I was raised in a region known as "Arc of Deforestation". The communities that engaged on Meli during the first year of projects (2021) were connected to local organisations I admire. In our second year of activities (2022) we first opened calls to communities with shared values also in other neighbouring areas. We could see the success of reaching new communities was well related to the previously engaged communities sharing the word about our activities. As a result, the network grows in an organic manner.
From the Brazilian Amazon, I'm now a migrant in Germany, where I could have clarity on how important my home region is in the context of global climate change. At the same time, I could also see the Global North lack of knowledge and understanding of the Amazon, what often prevents international cooperation to be successful in the long-term. But I also saw the international interest to change that and connect with grassroots activities and communities in the Global South.
The possibility to multiply grassroots Green Changemakers inspires me.
Your approach: How are you enabling other people to identify as green changemakers? How are you influencing them to get involved in your initiative or care about the issue you are addressing?
We enable indigenous & local communities, as well international audience to identify themselves as green changemakers and lead projects to support regenerative practices with social and environmental positive impact and connect with leaders doing similar activities.
We carefully listen communities’ project ideas & select the most feasible ones to access funding and support from experts (external or peers) on subjects as regenerative agriculture, biology, technology for managing their territory, storytelling, etc. They start to understand themselves as green changemakers that can lead large positive impact.
The project "Ma'eputyr" (Guajajara Tupy for "flower") is a good example. In this project, Meli supported local leaders to (1) collected seeds from parts of their territory with primary forest to restore their areas which were previously burn; (2) establish nurseries; (3) care for native bees; and (4) use a georeferencing and monitoring application to facilitate their activities. All project activities, since its idea, were selected by community members themselves and they have flexibility to lead their activities, once we fully trust their goals of protecting their forest and their community. They feel proud of their work as green changemakers.
To engage the global audience concerned with climate justice questions, we organise events, such as "International Decolonail Journey" to inform about regions we're active on the Global South and to connect with possible partners in the Global North. From relationships that started in such events we already connected with 2 volunteers teaching English to our communities and working on our communications. Seeing their direct impact in historically marginalized communities, they also understand themselves as green changemakers.
Community involvement: How is your approach involving community participation, especially the historically marginalized groups?
Indigenous & local communities are the centre of our network. We support their peer to peer and organic connections.
We use online platforms and offline events for the interaction between community members. In our online group, community members post almost daily. We host recurrent online calls, where one community leader is invited to give an "opening talk" and the participants continue the conversation interacting in a healthy manner and exchanging knowledge and experiences. We host circa two in-person events per year with a part of the communities' members: our regenerative agriculture workshops are space of traditional wisdom & seeds exchange; we also host governance events to strengthen the community & hubs leaders.
We connect the communities through hubs, made by communities which are geographically close. The hubs give the previously engaged communities located in a determined area the autonomy to locally engage other network participants which might not be accessible otherwise (due to lack of internet connectivity, per example). Rural and indigenous communities of a particular location often have previous experiences with communities in their area and are the best to confirm the similar values and interest on leading regenerative practices of their neighbours.
We can also highlight the strong participation of communities’ members in our team & decision-making.
Your Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions already out there? How is your approach original and innovative? We are particularly interested in solutions that use regenerative approaches.
We innovate building an impact network centred in the perspective of the indigenous peoples and local communities who participate on it. We work together and involve them in the decision-making process to reach regenerative practices, with clear long-term positive impacts.
We built an innovative program (Pollinating Regeneration) to build projects with the communities leadership since its ideation. That enable the communities’ leadership to acknowledge their power and impact as Green Changemakers.
We deeply listen the indigenous and local communities on the ground, their needs and wishes. We understand they are the leaders of effective regenerative practices impacting nature and community in a positive manner.
Most of the team (72%) is originally from the regions where the organisation is active, including 50% from indigenous and local communities. This gives us a strong bond with and understanding about the regions.
We support the communities' relationship with each other, in a peer to peer manner. It's easier for them to listen to each other once they already have a previous relationship of trust and because they speak a similar language, when they have similar past experiences.
At the same time, we also support their connection between communities and partners to happen as directly as possible.
These both types of connections bring together communities and partners with different perspectives and allow what we call “unexpected results” to happen. Examples include exchange of seeds; peer-to-peer wisdom exchange; share contacts for land rights recognition and other similar governmental questions; inspiration for new projects; research on insect behaviour in partnership between communities and universities; volunteer English language courses; etc.
Founding Story: Share a story about the "Aha!" moment that led the founder(s) to get started or the story of how you saw the potential for this to succeed.
A Kayapó indigenous friend of mine visited me in Germany in 2019 due to an international prize ceremony. The idea of supporting the beekeeping of native stingless bees in his village (Môjkàràkô) came from our conversation. Using the platform of a podcast I used to host, I started a crowdfunding to deliver activities in the start of 2020, short before the Covid outbreak.
This experience called also the attention of other indigenous and local communities in my personal network interested in developing regenerative practices led by the community themselves. At the same time, I saw the international interest of supporting effective international cooperation projects.
In 2020, once my mom showed Tuxati, a Guavião indigenous leader, the pictures of our activities with the Kayapó, Tuxati looked at my mom and asked: "when is this activity coming to our people as well?". I'm happy to share we established a native beekeeping area in her territory in the end of 2021 and we intend to reach many other communities who want the support to strengthen their regenerative practices.
The start of Meli's Network happened very organically, we started connecting the interested communities, researchers and other leaders via an online group. This group now counts with around 200 members and is our main platform for fast communication between the organisation, communities and partners.
Impact: How has your project made a difference so far? How is it contributing to a zero-carbon world- where every person thrives, and nobody gets left behind?
We engage more than 50 communities (our social map) interested on developing regenerative practices. Together, these communities have access to circa 1.000.000ha of land, including primary forest areas in high risk of invasion by illegal activities. Enabling them to identify as Green Changemakers, we see their huge potential to protect forest and biodiversity, contributing to a zero-carbon world. We scale our impact involving the communities, as they are aware about the local context and connect us with other communities motivated to work on regenerative practices.
During first two years of activities we developed 10 projects on the following topics: regenerative agriculture, native beekeeping, cultural support, tech for forest protection and international awareness.
In our third year of activities, we started a program called Pollinating Regeneration, engaging the communities actively in the project since it's ideation. We supported or are currently supporting 10 communities (or group of communities) developing their pre-projects. This new methodology for project development aims to build the same social and environmental positive impact, but now being let by the communities themselves, increasing their self-acknowledgment as green changemakers and the interest of the entire communities in the projects, what leads to a stronger long-term positive impact.
What’s Next: What are your ideas for taking your project to the next level?
We will scale the Pollinating Regeneration program to reach more communities. We are currently working in the structural preparation to reach communities in other languages (Spanish and English), what we intend to start in 2024.
Our projects currently focus on establishing regenerative production to support communities’ livelihoods and/or reach local markets. The next step will focus on start supply chains. We intend to do so deeply listening the communities and in partnership with universities and B-corporations to develop our activities in the best way possible. We understand the importance to be careful and avoid undesirable impacts.
We are starting and intend to do more partnerships with universities, to build community-centred scientific production inspired by citizen-science values and moved by the needs presented by the communities. We approved a PhD position on biology (at Bristol University) inspired by questions from a Guajajara group, the PhD candidate will study the behaviour of bees, starting next September; Meli is also supporting an agrarian engineering bachelor final thesis (at Amazonian Federal Rural University) on native beekeeper in an Amazonian municipality (Parauapebas). We see a large potential on these partnerships and intend to also connect with on other fields of study including international development and business.
Your team: What is the current composition of your team (types of roles, qualifications, full-time vs. part-time, board members, etc.), and how do you plan to evolve the team’s composition as the project grows?
Team includes 50% indigenous peoples & local communities, 33% migrants and 72% female. They bridge grassroots work & international cooperation.
Full-time:
Ana Rosa - Director. International relationships, fundraising, etc.
Jonas Guajajara – Meli Brasil President. Agroecology tech. & indigenous wisdom custodian
Part-time & Service Providers:
Ana Paula & Silvia - Pollinating Regeneration program. Biology.
Kukuy Apurinã (mathematician), Olinda Tupinambá (journalist) & Francisco Guajajara – Indigenous Project Coordination.
Ana Maria & Alan (agrarian eng) - Local Communities Project Coordination.
Luandro - Technology expert. Mapeo for land management, P2P app on bee (in development).
Bruna - MSc Sustainable Development (Uppsala), Erasmus scholarship.
Ana Beatriz, Daniela, Tainá & Aldenice - Agrarian and Forestry Engineering at UFRA (Amazonian Federal Rural University), Meli scholarship.
Laura - Msc Sustainable Management (Paris). Spanish-speaking growth.
Vitória – Design.
Fabiana – Translation.
Operational Sustainability Plan: What is this solution’s plan to ensure operational sustainability.
We develop long-term partnerships to build and strengthen regenerative practices. These practices include ensuring the communities’ food sovereignty and also start supply chains to ensure their economic security.
Our network grows and scale its impact in an organic manner. It’s strongly related to communities sharing their experience with other communities and motivating new members to join the network.
We experienced problems of internet connection leading to difficulty on engaging a larger number of communities. For that problem, a leader of a Guajajara indigenous village who wanted to engage other Guajajara villages brought a solution: the creation of communities’ “hubs”. Hub leaders “select” other communities aiming to develop regenerative activities. They know the neighbour communities best and engage other motivated communities.
Another manner we are solving the problems with internet connectivity is engaging other tech for good partners, like Digital Democracy, that support the establishment and use of connectivity.
The communities also mentor each other about the regenerative practices each one is expert on. In this manner, projects that aimed to support one particular community end up having its positive impact multiplied by the network and supporting multiple other communities.
VIDEO: Please share the link to a 1-minute YouTube video that answers the following “I identify as a Green Changemaker because...”. Ensure that your video does not exceed 60 seconds
https://youtu.be/vjLvZ0J7pJc
Impact Model: While reviewing applications, we identified a need to better understand the impact models for the innovations that applied. How would you describe the activities you engage in and what outcomes and long-term impact do they lead to?
We build (1) an impact network and (2) programs to support community-led projects. The network engages indigenous peoples and local communities to support each other in a peer-to-peer manner and enable them to reach external partners; we develop programs with the structure needed by communities to reach financial and technical support to lead projects since ideation, with clear positive social and environmental impacts, enabling them to identify themselves as Green Changemakers.
Key stakeholders: The network is centred in the communities, but also connect them with Universities and research institutes (technical support); with donors, b-corps and foundations (financial support); and with international audience spreading their word.
Each project has a clear outcome benefiting community and environment that can be measured (area, number of families impacted, etc). But we understand that to be the “start”, as the interactions within the network allow “unexpected results” to follow. Examples: exchange of seeds between communities allows a project’s higher seedling production; exchange of wisdom on native bees allows beehives to survive disease even after the project was “finished”. In that manner, we deliver long-term impact and strengthen community’s autonomy.
Enabling communities to see themselves as Green Changemakers, we raise their autonomy and their long-term impact. Bridges are built between partners to support a positive impact not only during a single project, but also in a long-term perspective. The communities get prouder on how rich the forest they’re protecting is and get motivated to protect the forest and biodiversity even more. The communities increase their creativity while starting new projects, also increasing their high positive impact.
Audience: Who are you most directly impacting through your work? Who is the target beneficiary? Please specify if the population you are reaching is underserved due to any of the following characteristics?
Ethnicity Socio-Economic Class Other (Please Specify)
If you chose the "Other" option, please specify
Rural areas
How are you activating green changemakers?
Imagining new possibilities: leading group processes to help people see the possibilities and consequences of acting; innovating new products, business models, or ways of organising Walking alongside individuals: offering one-on-one coaching, mentoring and troubleshooting; providing sustained energy to shift the inertia of the system Creating a community: bringing together peers to share learnings, reinforce behaviours, and develop positive social norms; hosting gatherings where people see their work as part of a bigger whole Building Understanding: communicating complex science, data and / or systems theory surrounding climate change in an accessible way, tailored to the specific audience and context
If you chose the "Other" option, please specify
Organization Type: Which organization type best describes how your work or initiative has been organized or registered?
Nonprofit/NGO
Tell us briefly about how you have and/ or would like to engage partners or other changemakers to enhance your approach:
We engage (1) grassroots communities and/or organisations engaging them; (2) universities; (3) donors and foundations; (4) media partners.
Our biggest mission is to engage grassroots communities. For that, we get inspired and partner with other organisations doing so, led by the community or external partners like other NGOs. Organisations moved by shared values are very helpful to start and/or maintain the relationship with a community, particularly in new regions of activities. As we plan start Spanish and English platforms in 2024, it would be great to partner with other Green Changemakers with grassroots connections in Spanish or English-speaking countries.
Universities are important partners to reach the desired technical expertise and are often interested in connecting their work with the reality on the ground. We partner with biology, agrarian and forest engineering, and intend to partner with international development and business.
We want to partner with donors and foundations with a post capitalist mindset for philanthropy.
We see an increasingly number of changemakers sharing voices from indigenous and local communities leading impactful activities in this moment of global climate change. We already partner with a few, like Climate Stories, but we’re looking forward to partnering with more media partners and share the word from communities engaged in our network.
Annual budget: Hint: What is the cost for your current operations every year (or most recent year)? This is expenditure for your project or organization. The reference currency is the U.S. dollar.
$100k - $250k
Winning Impact Potential: How would winning the Green Changemakers Challenge impact and leverage your work?
Ashoka inspires me since long before I started Meli. After I entered the Green Changemakers Challenge, I already got contacted and contacted 3 other changemakers doing inspiring things that resonate with our work and can even be future partners. This confirmed how impactful is the network connected with Ashoka. I’m sure that being a part of this network can lead to start new partnerships and even find new mentors. This will be particularly helpful as we are currently structuring our activities with the aim to scale and start growing our network to Spanish and English-speaking communities in the next years.
The prize would allow us to maintain our team active; and to support a larger number of community-led projects participating in the Pollinating Regeneration Program. The projects came from ideas raised during ideation workshops holding shared decision-making in the communities. The ideas are currently being further worked into fundable projects, to be ready to access funds.
Potential connections made related to the Green Changemakers Challenge can also support us maintain the Pollinating Regeneration Program also in the years to come, after the inputs and reflections from this first year.
Skills Matching: If you win, you may have the opportunity to be matched with HSBC employees for skill-based mentorship. If matched, which of the following skills would you be most interested in receiving?
Marketing Strategy
