3.4.4 | Phases of Assentamento: Maintenance
The “fading” of collective initiatives that begins in the assentamento’s establishment tends to continue in the years to come. This seems to be particularly the case when, in addition to the effect of the distribution of land among individual families, the assentamento lacks any sort of common vision. Among the cases we visited, only two had developed a shared sense of what the assentamento was trying to be an example of, and in both cases this was tied to particular collective initiatives that were perceived as successful. In one case, the community had set for itself the goal of becoming a regional reference for the agroecological production of cocoa and derived products (Terra Vista); in the other, the community has very strong cooperative arrangements for producing and processing goods, and shares the vision of continuously experimenting with new products—the most recent being cachaça (COPAVA).
In one case, the community had set for itself the goal of becoming a regional reference for the agroecological production of cocoa and derived products (Terra Vista) [23:XX].
In the other, the community has very strong cooperative arrangements for producing and processing goods, and shares the vision of continuously experimenting with new products — the most recent being cachaça (COPAVA) [19:XX]. But even in these cases, the maintenance phase of the assentamento continues to present particularly intense challenges. Connected with the previous phases, these challenges represent the focus of our analysis in the following chapter. However, before we get there, it is necessary to introduce the contrast case of ecovillages, from which we obtained further insights for addressing sustainability challenges in assentamentos.
>>> 3.5 | Ecovillages: a source of insights for sustainability in small rural communities