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• 1 2016-03-18T15:45:54-07:00 6.4 | Collective initiatives can prevent isolation in rural communities by acting as touchpoints with the external world and bringing exchange opportunities for assentados 4 plain 2016-03-29T17:21:00-07:00 <<< 6.3 | More room for experimentation can strengthen sustainability know-how
  
  Sustainability can only be effectively fostered in agrarian reform if assentamentos are not isolated. As we have seen during our research, local, national and international exchanges can be a key for discovering, discussing, and effectively adapting alternative methods for production and construction, and for making assentamentos more appealing to the youth.
  
  
  Our research indicates that engaging with people beyond their assentamento can provide assentados increased opportunities for learning and enhancing commercial and cultural activities. It helps to avoid isolation, and contributes to build a wider network of support—derived from the contact with people from other cultures and backgrounds.‘External people’ can either be specialized employees—attained via technical assistance or partnerships—or volunteers, students and assentados from different parts of the country. However, their engagement should be perceived as rewarding enough to compensate the costs implied by hosting external people imply (interview 23).
  
  Assentamentos can play an active and not merely passive role in this regard. Nevertheless, in order to achieve this, some degree of cooperation is essential—assentados can hardly assume that role individually, as it usually involves partnerships. As demonstrated by Terra Vista, fostering strong collective initiatives can make assentamentos become local diffusers of knowledge and catalyzers for the empowerment of surrounding communities [23:bx]. This is particularly true as assentamentos become ‘hubs of development’ of technologies and skills for sustainable production to other farmers. 
  
  
  >>> ​7 | Closing Remarks