At a Glance

Location: Pará, Brazil

Impact Areas: Suppliers, Employment, Income Generation

People Supported:
Indigenous Communities, Women

Joined NESsT Portfolio:
2023

www.menirexikrin.com

Overview

The Associação Bebô Xirin do Bacajá (ABEX) is an Indigenous association that represents the Mebengokrê – Xikrin People of the Trincheira Bacajá Indigenous Land (TITB), defending and upholding their social and territorial rights. Founded in 2003, the Association’s mission is to ensure the quality of life and well-being of the Xikrin People of the TITB, while keeping the forest standing and conserving water and other natural resources upon which the Xikrin People depend. It currently benefits 31 communities and more than 60 families.

The livelihoods of the Xikrin communities of the TITB are centered primarily on hunting, fishing, agriculture, and collecting non-timber forest produce – the surplus of which is traded to access additional income. It is only in the past two decades that Xikrin People have been able to overcome intermediaries paying unfair prices and negotiate with the open market on equitable terms. As members of ABEX, they access fair wages for their forest-sourced products, which include Amazon nuts, and locally made artisan items.

ABEX actively seeks to include young people and women in decision-making discussions and works to engage Xikrin women in production activities to support their financial independence. Another of ABEX’s business lines is babassu oil, which was traditionally extracted manually from the fruit of the babassu palm by Xikrin women and used in cooking and cosmetics. In 2022, ABEX won the Equator Prize, allowing the Association to invest in processing equipment and training to increase extraction efficiency and babassu oil quality.

Additionally, with the support of the NESsT’s Amazon Indigenous Rights and Resources (AIRR) project in 2021, ABEX was able to offer Xikrin women training in handicraft skills such as cutting and sewing. Today, over 200 Xikrin women across 22 of the territory’s villages make hand-painted canvases, handbags, dresses, necklaces, bracelets, and bead earrings, which are directly sold to companies on the national market at fair prices.

ABEX also works closely with the Xikrin People to strengthen joint territory monitoring and land management practices, and to support the preservation of the fauna and flora of the Xingu River and the Bacajá River.

NESsT Investment

In 2023, the Amazon nut harvest was very abundant, which enabled ABEX to triple the quantity of nuts from Xikrin producers compared to the previous year. As part of the NESsT Accelerator,  ABEX received working capital which will support next year’s nut harvest, in addition to helping the Association to resume its babassu oil line, which was temporarily postponed during the pandemic. ABEX will leverage NESsT’s investment to further promote the production of babassu oil as an income opportunity and increase the number of Xikrin women it supports.

ABEX will also receive support to continue developing the marketing and sales strategy of its forest-sourced and handicraft products, with a focus on gaining product certification, enhancing negotiation skills to secure higher prices on the open market, and strengthening financial management. As ABEX moves toward financial sustainability during its acceleration, it plans to increase the income of day laborers and producers.

In 2022, the discussion for the creation of a Xikrin women's council in the organizational structure of ABEX began. NESsT will work together with ABEX on boosting its gender impact and securing higher income for producers, above all for Xikrin women, by supporting the Association’s efforts to seek additional partners for its line of handicraft products.