About Us
We value knowledge, local practices, and community organizations, supporting socio-productive inclusion and the fight for the rights of indigenous peoples, traditional peoples and communities, and family farmers, in pursuit of social equity, environmental balance, and climate justice.
We are a civil society organization that, for over 35 years, has worked to strengthen sustainable livelihoods, with community leadership and the appreciation of knowledge and socio-biodiversity. Socio-environmental and climate justice is the horizon that guides our path.
We support the generation and exchange of knowledge, recognizing the essential role of local communities in maintaining life on the planet and building innovative and resilient solutions to the climate crisis.
Our story begins in 1990, when a group of researchers decided to join forces to improve and document their research and act in defense of the environment in dialogue with social debates. This initiative gave rise to the Institute for Society, Population, and Nature (ISPN).
In 1994, ISPN was selected by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to coordinate the Small Grants Programme (SGP) in Brazil, focusing on the Cerrado. The SGP supports community-based projects in more than 120 countries, with support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
This experience fueled our work with eco-social projects, which are now gaining momentum with the Ecos Fund, an independent philanthropic mechanism for socio-environmental justice.
In 2013, we expanded our operations to the Caatinga and, two years later, with support from the Amazon Fund, we began supporting initiatives in the states of Maranhão, Tocantins and Mato Grosso.
Since then, we have supported more than a thousand projects in different biomes, through a diverse portfolio of funders, with the aim of qualifying, promoting, and multiplying knowledge that contributes to the consolidation of productive ecosocial landscapes, guaranteeing the present and future of communities and nature.
We strengthen sustainable livelihoods with community leadership.
Mission
Contribute to enabling social equity and environmental balance, by strengthening sustainable livelihoods and strategies for adapting to climate change.
Vision
Establish itself as an agent of societal transformation, strengthening sustainable lifestyles, social participation in public policies, and the integration of practices and knowledge that promote climate justice.
Values
Trust relationship
We work to build relationships based on respect, trust, honesty, and transparency, prioritizing dialogue and joint actions to achieve socio-environmental transformations.
Socio-environmental commitment
We act responsibly to balance socioeconomic and environmental interests in favor of the well-being of people and communities.
Recognition of knowledge
We value learning processes that inspire and multiply the diversity of knowledge and transformative practices with fair and inclusive socio-environmental impacts.
Valuing diversity
We strive for relationships based on respect and inclusion of all people, recognizing and valuing the plurality and protagonism of each individual and their collectives.
Cooperation
We work collaboratively and in solidarity, working as a team and among organizations, partners, and communities in the search for solutions to socio-environmental challenges.
Where we came from
Drag and learn a little more about our history.
1990
ISPN is created.
1992
At Rio 92, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Small Grants Programme (SGP) were created. That same year, the Cerrado Network emerged.
1993
ISPN is chosen as the host institution for the SGP in Brazil and the Cerrado as the geographic focus.
1994
SGP is established in Brazil under the name of Small Projects Program (PPP), in partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
1995
The National PPP Steering Committee was created. That same year, the first call for proposals was launched, supporting 14 projects with a total resource of US$300.
1996-2000
Period of support for pilot projects and systematization of knowledge and results generated in communities.
2002
ISPN reaches the milestone of 100 projects supported by the PPP.
2003
Cerrado Day is created on September 11th in honor of the artist and environmentalist Ary Pára-Raios.
2000-2004
The first three Meetings of the Peoples of the Cerrado are held in Goiânia (GO) with support from ISPN and the participation of several beneficiaries of the program.
2005
The PPP is now called the Small Ecosocial Projects Program, PPP-ECOS. That same year, the program receives its first logo.
2007-2011
ISPN produces and publishes a series of booklets bringing together good practices for managing Cerrado fruits, which have become a reference in the socio-environmental field.
2010
ISPN launches the book “Seeds launched, fruits harvested” about the 15-year experience of PPP-ECOS.
2011-2013
PPP-ECOS, the SGP in Brazil, is graduated by the GEF and now accesses the STAR resource system.
2013
ISPN begins supporting Indigenous peoples in northwestern Maranhão through the Vale-Funai Cooperation Agreement and opens an office in the state. That same year, PPP-ECOS expands its operations to the Caatinga, with GEF/UNDP funding, and to the Arc of Deforestation region in the Amazon, with funding from the Amazon Fund and BNDES.
2013-2017
ISPN supports the first set of projects exclusively for indigenous peoples with resources from the GEF/GATI and the Climate Fund/Funai in partnership with UNDP and the Ministry of the Environment.
2015
2017
2018
ISPN joins the Comuá Network.
2018-2019
PPP-ECOS is now understood as an institutional strategy for Promoting Ecosocial Productive Landscapes.
2019
The second phase of the PPP-ECOS partnership with the Amazon Fund begins.
2020
2023
ISPN joins the Alianza Socioambiental Fondos del Sur.
2024
PPP-ECOS celebrates its 30th anniversary and is renamed Fundo Ecos. In the same year, ISPN reaches the milestone of supporting one thousand projects. Indigenous environmental management and restoration projects in the Gurupi Mosaic are launched with support from ISPN and resources from the Copaíbas Project (Funbio).
Who does
We have a multidisciplinary team of more than 80 collaborators from the humanities, environmental and exact sciences.
Management
Fabio Vaz Ribeiro de Almeida – Executive Coordinator
Rodrigo Almeida Noleto – Community Initiatives Program Coordinator
Isabel Figueiredo – Coordinator of the Cerrado Program
John Guilherme Nunes Cruz – Coordinator of the Indigenous Peoples Program
Ruthiane Pereira – Coordinator of the Maranhão Program
Silvana Bastos – Coordinator of the Sociobiodiversity Program
Leticia Verdi – Communications Coordinator
General Assembly and Supervisory Board
Donald Rolfe Sawyer – CEO and member of the General Assembly
Cristiane Azevedo – Managing Director and member of the General Assembly
Andrea de Sousa Lobo – Member of the General Assembly
Carlos Ferreira de Abreu Castro – Member of the General Assembly
David Verge Fleischer – Member of the General Assembly
Fani Mamede – Member of the General Assembly
Andreia Bavaresco – Member of the Supervisory Board
Carcius Azevedo dos Santos – Member of the Supervisory Board
Cassio Noronha Inglez de Sousa – Member of the Supervisory Board