Applicant Name: Renata Pauva do Nascimento

Applicant ETH Address: 0xF908e2c2903F174240e3E57634E9f9D3EC4d1789

Organization(s) or Affiliation(s): UNA - União Namastê de Agroecologia

Why do you want to serve as an Expert Evaluator for the Localism Fund?

I am currently the president of UNA – União Namastê de Agroecologia, which I founded together with a group of family farmers and the agroforester Namastê Messerschmidt, with whom I have been practicing agroforestry, agroecology, and studying forms of community organization around these purposes since 2016. UNA currently includes eight associated family farmers and four collaborators from the fields of biology, agronomy, and agroecology, and a network of many associations, collectives, family farmers, and community members engaged in spreading agroforestry, agroecology, and environmental awareness across the Atlantic Forest zone of Pernambuco, in the Northeast Region of Brazil.

Since 2021, we have been developing and implementing our Participatory Guarantee System (SPG/OPAC – Participatory Organization for Evaluation of Conformity), officially recognized by the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture (MAPA) and the State Organic Production Commission of Pernambuco (CPOrg-PE). This system creates a living framework of trust, co-responsibility, and collective learning through Mutirões—ancestral gatherings where communities unite to work, share knowledge, and strengthen solidarity.

I wish to contribute to the Localism Fund because its mission aligns with ours: to reinforce territorial sovereignty and community-based regeneration through cooperation, transparency, and shared governance. My academic background includes postgraduate degrees in Sustainable Agrifood Systems Management (EIIS – European Institute of Innovation for Sustainability, Rome), Finance and Marketing (FGV – Fundação Getúlio Vargas), and a BA in Social Communication (Federal University of Pernambuco). I also collaborate with the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE), linking students and researchers in Agroecology and Forest Engineering to UNA’s field activities for participatory research and training in agroforestry.

After participating in RECITY, a three-week Regenerative Finance learning event held in Recife (PE), I began exploring how Web3 and blockchain technologies can strengthen participatory governance and regenerative finance. Together with Greenpill Brazil and Terexitarius (Tomas Price) of Rooted Finance, we are developing a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) project for UNA and a Local Node for Greenpill Brazil and AgroforestDAO. Rooted Finance is building a system to connect family farmers’ daily field-notebook inputs—on planting, harvesting, and managing their agroforestry systems—to broader uses such as market access, community organization, socio-environmental census data, soil indicators, and carbon-equivalent markets.

Our next steps involve expanding UNA’s model to new territories in 2026, structuring local cooperatives, and consolidating Agroforestry-Agroecological Systems (SAFAs) to help regenerate what remains of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest—now less than 2 percent of its original coverage. Acting as a Localism Expert will allow me to connect this regional experience with a global community of practitioners committed to local empowerment, regenerative economies, and ecological justice.

🪴 Grant-Making Expertise

Program Design & Management: ****0