The Southern Bahia People Fund (FASB) is a joint initiative of Forum Florestal da Bahia, NGPTA and Kirkbi. Established in 2020, the Fund promotes local actions focused on sustainable development such as facilitating agroforestry farming systems and restoration of the Atlantic Forest. The overall goal of FASB is to build climate-resilient and adaptive ecosystems and communities with people as a central element.
The Fund operates in the South and Extreme South of Bahia, in an area where 23 municipalities are located, and where 1.1 million people live. This region stands out for economic activities such as cocoa, eucalyptus, and coffee growing, as well as agriculture and entertainment, cultural and ecological tourism.
Through partnerships with local, indigenoustraditional communities and institutions, FASB offers a new model for forest landscape restoration, shifting away from business-as-usual top-down to growing land restoration stewards from the ground-up. The implementation of FASB is facilitated by Forum Florestal da Bahia as the multi-stakeholder platform, NGPTA providing the technical support to the development and implementation processes and the Danish investor, KIRKBI, providing financial resources.
The primary goal for FASB is to collaborate with local communities to restore and expand the Atlantic Forest in Southern Bahia.
The duration of the Fund is 2021-2024 with the potential to expand beyond this timeline.
FASB adopts an innovative bottom-up approach that supports locally-led projects through a stepwise approach: from providing technical assistance and initial funding to support people develop their ideas, to incubating promising projects and enabling them to scale up by attracting commercial investment. With this approach, FASB aims to restore:
Restaurar 750ha de Mata Atlântica.
750ha under sustainable land use and management (sustainable agriculture + sustainable forestry)
FASB is localizing the achievement of sustainable development in Brazil by contributing to the following UN-SDGs.
The year 2023 was a milestone for FASB. The project has consolidated itself in the territory and has become a recognized brand with a total of 45 projects implemented by 34 different institutions.
Below are the indicators (2021-23) taken from the monitoring reports delivered for the project categories totaling 330ha currently executed against the 1,229ha contracted (27%).
With a total investment of €2,600,000 in funds received, €1,392,850 has already been invested and €1,567,150 remains to be allocated to complete the first investment cycle for all the projects approved in the six calls for proposals that began in April 2021.
During this period, 224,789 trees of 190 different species were planted, of which ~170 were native and ~20 exotic.
We put communities at the center of our work. As a result, several families and workers have been involved in the project's actions, both directly and indirectly (by taking part in training and learning from examples). Both in the implementation of the project and in the improvement of actions, training, courses and meetings.
FASB also operates through operational, local and advisory committees. Frequent meetings are held with all partners in a participatory way to ensure the smooth running of the Fund and projects thereof.
FASB also participates in NGP study tours including one in 2021 and one in 2022 where we highlight the progress, lessons and solutions to challenges in implementation and monitoring.