Deadline: 27-Feb-23
Are you an entrepreneur working in any link in the restoration or agroforestry chain in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest? Are you working with solutions to recover degraded landscapes? Do you need to quickly learn how to raise funds to expand your business? World Resources Institute (WRI), WRI Brasil and Initiative 20×20 are proud to host the second cohort of the Land Accelerator Brazil, a program that trains and mentors entrepreneurs whose businesses restore degraded forests, farms and pastures in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest.
Building off Land Accelerators in Africa and South Asia, this program trains and mentors leaders who develop sustainable and profitable businesses in the reforestation, agroforestry and regenerative farming sectors across Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Land Accelerator has worked in Latin America to connect entrepreneurs with a team of dedicated mentors, technical expertise, marketing and networking opportunities and investors to scale up their work and help countries meet their commitments to protect and restore more than 50 million hectares of land in Latin America and the Caribbean by 2030.
Objectives
- The Accelerator is a training and business financing program that aims to strengthen the entrepreneurial and business culture in the catering chain. It also aims to improve the social, environmental and economic impacts of forestry businesses, contributing to increasing the scale and quality of initiatives, their forests and all their resources, as well as the people who live and work in this chain that is so important for the Brazilian economy.
- Developed as a personalized 16-week program of mentoring, training, exchange and direct funding, the Accelerator, in addition to training teams of small and medium-sized companies to improve the management of their businesses, intends to connect them with opportunities to attract new investments, networks and alliances.
Opportunities and benefits for participants
- Specialized technical training: applicants will be trained in essential content for the technical and financial structuring of forestry businesses, providing technical training for their improvement and/or expansion;
- Design and execution of the consolidation or expansion plan: the accelerator will provide technical training to create the consolidation or expansion plan, identifying specific needs, individualized technical support planning investment for its execution;
- Be part of the Accelerator’s innovation community: the accelerator will provide spaces for connection, exchange of experiences and collective construction between participants and specialists involved in the activities, supporting the identification of new financing solutions and/or partnerships;
- Connection with potential financiers: the accelerator will open opportunities for presentation and debate on business with institutions, networks, companies and potential investors;
- Visibility and dissemination: the entire acceleration process will be documented and there will be a series of dissemination activities on the communication channels and social networks of WRI Brasil and WRI Global, and for local, national and global press vehicles;
- Opportunity to become a reference and model for restoration initiatives in Brazil and the world: the knowledge generated by the acceleration will be recorded and disseminated to encourage Brazilian and global actors to implement restoration businesses, as well as influence financial institutions and investors to innovate their performance in this field.
What does Accelerator offer?
- Training, mentoring and qualification program on online platforms and face-to-face events
- Exchange activities with forestry businesses in Brazil and worldwide
- Contribution of financial resources to the 5 most promising initiatives
- Disclosure and dissemination of accelerated business
Target Audience
- Small and medium-sized companies, societies or cooperatives – as long as they have economic purposes.
- They need to be working within the Atlantic Forest biome and related to one of the links in the restoration chain.
- Only and exclusively legal entities will be eligible (the National Register of Legal Entities – CNPJ must be informed at the time of registration).
Which businesses can apply
- The Accelerator considers “forestry businesses” to be entities or undertakings that involve the forest restoration or agroforestry chain, ranging from the production of seeds and seedlings to the sale of products generated from restored areas, such as wood, fruits and food in general.
- This spectrum also includes restoration-related services such as technical assistance, engagement and education.
- For the current call for entries, legal entities duly registered in the Brazilian territory and whose purpose is for profit will be selected. Small and medium-sized companies, societies or cooperatives that are operating in the Atlantic Forest biome and have a real positive impact by reversing land or forest degradation will be considered.
Eligibility Criteria
- The selection process for the Forestry Business Accelerator follows the following guidelines:
- Eligibility criteria: Is it a restaurant or agroforestry chain business? Is it for-profit? Is the cadastral and legal situation of the business up to date? Does it work in the Atlantic Forest? Does it have a positive impact on the area?
- Selection criteria: The quality of the material submitted, the capacity of the business team, the proposed innovation, indicators that show what the company has already achieved and the financial viability and purpose will be evaluated.
- Special criteria: To ensure diversity among those selected, some criteria can earn additional points for businesses, including diversity in the composition of the team, geographic location in the Atlantic Forest and the sector within the catering chain.
For more information, visit WRI.