Equity

Our impact is directly related to our ability work as, with, and for, local peoples. This is not accidental, it’s a robust economic design based on successful grassroots economics around the world.

Savimbo’s three cofounders

Poverty → Environmental economics

Biodiversity credits ↗

We have proven a layered, environmental economy that is currently transacting. It stops deforestation on the ground immediately by empowering local conservationists to take concrete action.

Fair-trade economics

We're bullish on being fair. We follow a fair-trade economic model with a long history of success in industries like coffee and agriculture. This model includes advance monthly micropayments for a basic living wage, and shared profits from all sales related to environmental activities. Farmers and staff who stay with the project long-term also qualify company equity. Win-win.

  • “Although the rights of Indigenous peoples to self determination, land, territory resources and free, prior and informed consent are guaranteed under international law including in business contexts, rights are not recognized or applied effectively in many countries.”

    - Darío José Mejía Montalvo, Zenú Chair of UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous issues and Leader of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia

Bridging & bonding social capital

We believe in strengths-based relationships with indigenous groups and local peoples. To understand why we have a relationship of equals with our growers, you have to understand social capital, all the things you can do for yourself without money.

Social capital refers to the resources, assets, and relationships a community has within its network.

It can an be split into two buckets…

Bonding social capital

Bonding social capital

Is the strong bonds between like-groups.

You can solve problems with bonding social capital — it helps people get by. When a problem arises within a group, bonding social capital helps them reallocate existing resources to stay afloat.

Indigenous groups and other marginalized communities have often been left on their own to face their problems, so they have lots of bonding social capital.

Bridging
social capital

Bridging social capital

Is the weaker bonds between diverse groups.

Bridging social capital helps people get ahead. It allows communities to access different networks, with different assets and resources. Creating opportunities to overcome new obstacles. Unfortunately, it’s in short supply in the communities we work with.

So to recap, marginalized communities have high amounts of bonding social capital, and low amounts of bridging social capital. They are excluded from external networks by geography, or culture, or education, or any of a host of other factors both malignant and benign.

Health Bridging social capital
Education Bridging social capital

This is important, we’re talking about it because it’s bridging social capital that correlates the most with improved economic, health, and education outcomes for a community.

What we’re doing. Savimbo delivers bridging social capital to the communities best suited to conserve primary forest (with all its attendant carbon-fixing, biodiversity enhancing, ecological benefits).

This allows these communities to access the incentives necessary to continue, accelerate, and expand their conservation successes.

Indigenous groups might not have a lot of bridges to international markets, but they do have great bridges to other indigenous groups. By helping groups within this network, we help the whole network.

In order to scale planet-wide conservation, there is no better bridge than a happy, successful, partnership that supports an indigenous group in their traditional lifestyle. That’s what Savimbo was built to do.