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Between 1985 to 2022, Brazil lost 96 million hectares of natural land equivalent to 15% of its territory, driven predominantly by large-scale agriculture. Meanwhile, 99% of traditional peoples and Indigenous communities have never accessed government farming credit (PRONAF), and fewer than 10% access any form of financing, leaving the socio-bioeconomy dramatically underpowered despite its enormous potential for forest conservation and economic inclusion.
About the organisation
Conexsus - Instituto Conexões Sustentáveis - is a civil society organization established in 2018 by Valmir Ortega and Carina Pimenta, following over 15 years of work in Brazilian conservation finance and public policy. Conexsus’ work focuses on activating the community business ecosystem, expanding the range of solutions and partnerships that strengthen these enterprises and are adapted to their organisational needs, consolidating their contribution to income generation in rural areas and to the conservation of forests nationwide, across all Brazilian biomes, with strategic emphasis on the Amazon. It has recently expanded its work to a Pan-Amazonian scale, establishing partnerships with organisations in Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Suriname. Today, under the executive direction of Fabiola Zerbini, Conexsus positions socio-bioeconomy as a national model for inclusive economic development and works across three integrated levers: business technical assistance, market and supply chain linkages, and innovative financial instruments including blended finance and rural credit mobilisation. Since 2018, Conexsus has directly supported 210+ community businesses, mobilised R$46.3 million in financing for 123 enterprises, unlocked over R$18 million in rural credit for 1000+ family farming units, and contributed to the conservation of 34 million hectares. The organisation received the Skoll Award for Social Innovation (2022) and the Banco do Brasil Social Technology Award (2024), with institutional partners including the IDB, BNDES, Carrefour, the European Union, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
Valmir Ortega
Co-founder & Board Chair
Schwab Social Entrepreneur of the Year, Ashoka Fellow
Fabíola Zerbini
Executive Director
Headquarters: Brazil
Geographies: Brazil
Domains:
Climate, Livelihoods
Journey of Exponential Change
Conexsus is currently in the strategic design phase of its journey. Its big question is centred on finding new ways to connect community businesses to public policies that provide affordable credit, and to mobilise technical assistance so that these businesses have the support they need to grow sustainably.
The journey comes at an important time for Conexsus, as the organisation is finalising its strategic planning for the next five years, as a part of which it has identified an opportunity to work more as a system orchestrator and less as a direct implementer. In its journey thus far, Conexsus has understood that reaching societal scale is not the same as replicating existing solutions, and that creating autonomous hubs of solutions across diverse territories requires actors to assume new roles.
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