Connecting businesses and biodiversity conservation through community organizing: The case of babassu breaker women in Brazil

Abstract

We investigate the role of community organizing in connecting business activities and biodiversity conservation. We draw from a unique setting in the Brazilian Amazônia Legal (Legal Amazon)—the traditional community of quebradeiras de coco do babaçu (babassu nut breaking women), or quebradeiras—to show how this community connects the subsistence activity of breaking babassu palm tree nuts with local and global value chains (GVCs) in the cosmetics industry. As a consequence of multidimensional community organizing and local/global business connections, we show not only the ways in which biodiversity conservation has been realized in a large area of the Amazon but also how the quebradeiras have developed organizational activities that address persistent social, economic, and environmental challenges. Through community organizing, the quebradeiras maintain a traditional activity, connect with GVCs, and protect the biodiversity of the regional ecosystem. We thus call attention to the impact of business on strengthening community organizing and fostering biodiversity conservation.