OUT OF THE FOREST - FINALIST
BRASIL

Marajo Island in the Amazon is totally surrounded by fresh water - the largest such island in the world. The 200,000 people who live there are blessed with abundant fish during the 'dry season'.

But during the other half of the year, when the fish migrate elsewhere, the population suffers. This same 'rainy season' is also the cue for the Andiroba tree to deposit its water-born seeds. Vast numbers of these seeds are carried downriver every year. Many fetch up on the beaches of Marajo. The people always collected them but only for their own use.

But Brazilian company Brasmazon saw an opportunity to turn them into an alternative income source. They helped to establish a cooperative, Coopemalfilma, to collect the seeds and extract their oil for sale to the cosmetics industry. Brasmazon now buys around 500 tonnes of seeds from the cooperative every year, benefiting around 1000 islanders.

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