Six initiatives with the potential to generate positive social and environmental impacts in the carbon ecosystem to be selected by February 16, 2023.

Fundo Vale, a business promotion and investment fund created to promote a fairer and more inclusive economy through social and environmental impact businesses, and Quintessa, a positive impact accelerator that is a leader among impact businesses, recently launched the Forest & Climate Challenges Program – Carbon Edition. The goal is to select up to six innovative enterprises with the potential to solve challenges in the agroforestry carbon ecosystem to participate in an acceleration program. This initiative will prioritize solutions that preserve biodiversity and generate social co-benefits for local communities. To apply, visit the program’s website, desafiosflorestaeclima.com.br. The deadline for applications is February 16, 2023.

The contest is open to different kinds of enterprises, ranging from early-stage businesses that need support to validate their idea to mature businesses with solutions that are ready for use and need to be adapted/produced and require support to scale up. There are no restrictions regarding the profile of initiatives. Thus, startups, businesses, organizations and cooperatives, among other types of entities, can apply. The most important thing is to be scalable and have the prospect of being financially sustainable.

The selected initiatives will undergo a six-month acceleration program coordinated by Quintessa, involving the following:

• Individual and personalized monitoring;
• Mentoring to support the strategic challenges of each business;
• Diagnosis and development of acceleration plan, based on Quintessa’s methodology, which has already been used to boost more than 400 impact startups;
• Pitch to executives from Fundo Vale, Vale, strategic partners, investors and supporters;
• Access to Quintessa’s network of mentors.

The six businesses selected in this edition of the program will soon be announced. The next cycles have not yet been scheduled, but they will be recurring, given that Fundo Vale is committed to promoting this sector and it increasingly seeks to work with the innovation ecosystem to support business and learn about different solutions and initiatives.

Giovana Serenato, Fundo Vale’s social and environmental innovation leader, says, “The Carbon Edition is a milestone for Fundo Vale, because in addition to the challenge of finding and accelerating up to six initiatives in an ecosystem that still lacks structured businesses, we decided from the outset that the construction and execution stages would take place collaboratively, activating important players to support us, designing a specific Theory of Change and always focusing on our goal of generating positive social and environmental impacts.”

The expected impacts and results in the coming years are summarized below:

Impact carbon ecosystem in Brazil

Fundo Vale is working to strengthen the high-integrity carbon market and, through this new program, it is fostering innovative solutions to generate carbon credits and help promote sustainable development and improve local living conditions through social co-benefits.

According to Fundo Vale’s manager, Gustavo Luz, while investing in new impact businesses as part of Vale’s 2030 Forest Goal, it was realized that one of the great challenges in scaling up these enterprises is the need to remove systemic bottlenecks for the chain as a whole. “We see Brazil as a potential global leader in innovation and sustainability, and fostering these businesses, from their creation, through acceleration to final delivery, is a fundamental part of our purpose,” Luz explains.

Carbon market challenges

Agroforestry carbon ecosystem challenges have been broken into two broad areas: Indirect, referring to solutions that operate in the agroforestry chain, indirectly impacting carbon; and Direct, involving solutions that directly generate benefits for the carbon market, throughout all the stages of a project’s development and monitoring cycle.

In the Indirect area, solutions are sought to supply inputs for agroforestry systems, provide technical training for stakeholders in the carbon chain, guarantee land tenure and use, and commercialize agroforestry products. In the Direct area, solutions are sought to monitor, manage and finance carbon credit projects, access the carbon market and reduce the risks of carbon credit projects.

“We have identified many important challenges in the agroforestry chain and carbon chain. Given that just waiting is not an option, this initiative aims to accelerate those businesses that are proposing solutions for these chains. We opted for a personalized methodology to ensure that the program is high quality and assertive, adding value for entrepreneurs, who may have solutions and businesses at either initial or more advanced stages,” says Anna de Souza Aranha, managing partner of Quintessa.