Mocajuba - Tocantins River - Pará - Amazon - Brazil
Matriarch Preta Maia and her three daughters, Noanny, Naianny and Neylanny, live in a very well preserved area where cocoa cultivation is mostly on dry land and is considered as women territory. Thus, wild cocoa native to this region represents a form of resistance and female empowerment, being intuitively produced in an agroforestry system, in order to enhance and preserve the diversity and exuberant beauty of the Tauaré island in Mocajuba, Baixo Tocantins.
Preta Maia, as Nilce Maia is better known, carries the mission of perpetuating her father and husband’s legacy. Visionary, they were already thinking about SAF (Agroforestry System) and preserving the property's native trees. With their passing, the family saw the bond and permanence on this piece of land as the source of strength to continue and carry on their legacy.
Image Credits: Ana Lu Rocha and Meteus Mendes
This female group not only wants to dedicate itself to empowering the cocoa production chain, but also to the community’s development and awareness as a whole. In Noanny's words: “The Chocolates De Mendes proposal attracted us, as they want to go further, they want to value culture, the Amazon, they want to preserve and introduce a new model of sustainable living. With these improvements, the impact reverberates throughout the community, it is much bigger than us and cocoa. We want people to know that Mocajuba exists, that it is worth knowing. Today the great strategy for saving the Amazon lies in this: get to know the Amazon, understand why you have to save it.”
