Transforming the Social Finance sector in Brazil

SITAWI’s Médio Juruá Territory Program (PTMJ), which acts on several fronts in the promotion of a Territorial Development Plan for the Médio Juruá region in the state of Amazonas, Brazil has been recognized by the Equator Prize. We were finalists at the award alongside 75 other initiatives of global prominence recognized for their results in promoting transformations in local communities, rural areas and indigenous communities.

Organized by the Equator Initiative within the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Equator Prize is awarded biennially and recognizes communities’ efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. 

With 8 sustainable products supported, 325 thousand turtles released in nature and more than 900 thousand hectares of conserved forests, the Médio Juruá Territory Program has directly reached the lives of 2,459 people, promoting, besides biodiversity conservation, significant social and economic improvements in the region, through local productive chains and sustainable management of natural resources.  

“We at SITAWI are honored to coordinate the Médio Juruá Territory Program and to have served as Executive Secretary of the TMJ local governance forum in recent years. Local partners are the protagonists of this collective initiative that unites people and biodiversity in the Amazon. Locally, the fruits of this sustainable development are tangible. Being able to share them in a showcase of international prominence such as the Equator Prize, can inspire others in the same way that has inspired us in recent years”, highlights Roland Widmer, Program Manager at SITAWI.