Programs

To contribute to the Decade of Ecosystem Restoration and support dozens of local communities striving to preserve the Atlantic Forest, Casa Fund is implementing the Casa Mata Atlântica Program in 2023 and launching its first call for projects to strengthen grassroots communities within this biome in their search for improved living conditions and socio-environmental justice. Over its 18 years of operation, Casa Fund has been working with the strategy of providing appropriate support to organizations that are starting out or facing difficulties in accessing resources through other means. With a systemic and distributed vision, Casa Fund aims to drive positive processes for organizations, communities, and the environment. In 2022, approximately 65% of Casa Fund’s support was directed towards the Amazon, Cerrado, and Caatinga biomes, while 25% was allocated to the Atlantic Forest. With the creation of the Mata Atlântica Program, the expectation is that support can be more evenly distributed.

As the birthplace of major Brazilian metropolises, the Atlantic Forest biome also embraces traditional quilombola and indigenous communities, associations, and cooperatives that seek to strengthen their integrated work within the environment. Encouraging the recovery and restoration of the Atlantic Forest presents an opportunity to combat climate change and contribute to Brazil’s commitment to mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. Restoring and rehabilitating the Atlantic Forest can also help alleviate poverty by generating food and income opportunities.

The Casa Amazonia Program is focused on traditional organizations and communities throughout Amazonia, supporting projects in all nine countries in the region. Several studies demonstrate that traditional and grassroots communities play a key role not only in preserving the environment, but also in biodiversity management of the biomes they inhabit. We, at the Casa Fund, believe that these actors, strengthened in their territories and with improved living conditions, will have more opportunities to safeguard those large biomes for future generations. Traditional peoples know the forest as nobody else does, and this experience is fundamental for humankind to have a chance of getting to know the Amazon and all the biotic wealth that we still have on the planet. The calls for projects in this program are directly disseminated by the Casa Fund network of partners, thus reaching collectives in the remotest corners of the forest. The Casa Amazonia Program supports projects with a positive agenda, but it also has grants geared to emergency support.

The Casa Fund has a history of partnership with dozens of groups working to preserve coastal biomes and improve the quality of life of their populations. Artisanal fishing, an activity with low environmental impact, is increasingly threatened by real estate speculation, pollution, and excessive fishing. This program is focused on strengthening local organizations and strategic organizations representing artisanal fisherfolk, as we recognize them as the most important political actors in the conservation of coastal natural resources and local transformation.

The Casa Cities Program is focused on projects that improve life in the metropolitan areas, strengthening urban groups addressing inequalities produced by cities, as well as warning against pressures on natural resources. We support projects that give voice and protagonism to local groups building a city that recognizes and respects the power of existing diversity, transforming these cities into more just, equitable, and fulfilling spaces. Another important objective is to foster the connections city-countryside or cities-forests, thus stimulating ways to make these relations more harmonious and empathetic.

Read more: www.casacidades.casa.org.br

Strengthening grassroots communities is part of the Casa Fund’s mission and this program represents this purpose very well. Grants provided by this program have the main objective of driving forward projects that expand the autonomy of community organizations, enabling communities to be protagonists of their socio-environmental initiatives in rural or urban areas, across all regions of Brazil and South America, and all biomes.

Casa Fund has developed a systematic technology and efficient procedures for emergency support. Thus, we are able to act fast when the situation requires. Our Emergency Fund Program was created to help communities in situation of fragility in the face of urgent demands resulting from environmental crimes, natural disasters, or any other such emergency. Recently, the Emergency Fund provided strategic support to fishing communities hit by an oil leak in Brazil’s northeast. This program is also supporting preventive work and the fight against the new coronavirus in communities across Brazil.

The South American Program was created in 2007 to meet the needs of communities impacted by large energy projects in South America, and since then it has supported hundreds of projects in this line. The grants have connected and strengthened groups affected by mega-projects that cause imbalances and socio-environmental and cultural damages across borders. We seek to link local processes and actions to national and transnational movements, creating new spaces for social and environmental movements to influence public policies regulating mega-projects planned for their regions, in addition to transforming the current approach to development policies and projects.

In 2020, the South American Program begins a new stage by transferring the responsibility for this support to local funds that are being established in six countries of the region. This process involves an Alliance of Southern Funds created to promptly and efficiently respond to the needs and priorities of grassroots groups and local networks conceiving societies economically and environmentally sustainable, as well as fair solutions to protect communities, ecosystems, and territories in South America.

The Casa Fund is a member of the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA), and this partnership is also part of the South American Program. GAGGA is an alliance among several actors supporting women’s rights movements and environmental justice, from the local to international levels. The GAGGA Program amplifies the voices and opens pathways for women seeking solutions for socio-environmental injustices. Since 2016, the GAGGA Program has provided institutional and financial support to national, regional, and global funds and organizations addressing women’s rights and environmental justice in over 30 countries in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. The Program prioritizes financial support and strengthening the capacities of local groups, collectives, and organizations working with women’s rights and socio-environmental justice. The Casa Fund is GAGGA’s socio-environmental fund partner in South America, funding and monitoring projects in Bolivia and Paraguay.

Read more: https://gaggaalliance.org

The Casa Fund works to expand the autonomy and Independence of grassroots groups. Thus, it is strategic to strengthen their capacities.

The relationship with supported groups is developed through pedagogical processes, from project selection, contract signing, and up to project monitoring. Capacities are strengthened through workshops, but also by exchanges among the groups, experience sharing, and processes to facilitate learning from peers. Themes are focused on project elaboration, management, and communication, among other themes suggested by the groups.