BrazilCoastal area · Sea level rise

Adaptive management of Amazonian mangroves by extractive youth in the face of rising sea levels on the coast of Pará

Rede Cuíra is a collective of 13 youth groups, with around 60 black and indigenous young people from 14 Extractive Reserves and 1 Environmental Protection Area on the coast of Pará, which organizes extractive youth in the defense and traditional management of Amazonian mangroves against the advance of the sea and coastal erosion. Through the project "Voltando às minhas raízes" (Fundo Brasil), it has already trained 40 young leaders and reached 584 people directly and 1,168 indirectly in 21 communities.

Sea level riseCoastal area
Imagen de Manejo adaptativo de los manglares amazónicos por jóvenes extractivistas frente al aumento del nivel del mar en el litoral de Pará
Problem
The mangroves on the coast of Pará face increasing pressure from unsustainable extractive practices, oil exploration projects in the Equatorial Margin (Foz do Amazonas) and the impacts of rising sea levels and coastal erosion on communities whose livelihoods depend directly on the mangrove ecosystem — the largest continuous and most preserved area of mangroves in the world (11,229 km², part of the Macromaré Mangrove Coast of the Amazon, which accounts for 56.6% of Brazil's mangroves).
Action
Holding of the I and II Amazon Mangrove Youth Conference (the II on 15-16/03/2025, in Marapanim/PA, bringing together young people from 15 territories); training and forums with associations and local leaders; participation in institutional projects such as "Entre Águas Amazônicas" (GEF/FAO/MCTI) and "Sustenta Mangue" (Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation); organization of the Crab Fair in Soure (PA) against illegal extraction; and advocacy actions, such as the "Free Mangroves" protest at the opening of COP30, in Ver-o-Peso (Belém), against oil exploration in the Equatorial Margin.
Place
N/A, Pará, Brazil
Youth participation
The network operates horizontally between the 13 youth groups: young people from different Resex meet at the Mangrove Youth Conferences to exchange experiences and build the network's action plan together, instead of receiving it ready-made from outside. Each Resex maintains its own local young leadership, such as Erivelton Nascimento Chaves (Soure) and Gê Monteiro (Mestre Lucindo).

Base information

Measure summary

Rede Cuíra is a collective of 13 youth groups, with around 60 black and indigenous young people from 14 Extractive Reserves and 1 Environmental Protection Area on the coast of Pará, which organizes extractive youth in the defense and traditional management of Amazonian mangroves against the advance of the sea and coastal erosion. Through the project "Voltando às minhas raízes" (Fundo Brasil), it has already trained 40 young leaders and reached 584 people directly and 1,168 indirectly in 21 communities.

National vulnerability profile

Brazil presents a strong regional differentiation in climate vulnerability between its 5 regions and 6 biomes — from the semi-arid Northeast to the Amazon, from the Pantanal to the metropolises of the Southeast and South —, which requires instruments capable of translating this territorial diversity into concrete and legitimate political demands for each community.

Measure objectives

Strengthen the role of young extractivists in the management and defense of mangroves, train young leaders in 12 Resex and 1 APA on the coast of Pará, consolidate Rede Cuíra as a recognized political-territorial actor, and build/implement the network's own action plan for the protection of Amazonian mangroves.

Proposed solutions

Holding of the I and II Amazon Mangrove Youth Conference (the II on 15-16/03/2025, in Marapanim/PA, bringing together young people from 15 territories); training and forums with associations and local leaders; participation in institutional projects such as "Entre Águas Amazônicas" (GEF/FAO/MCTI) and "Sustenta Mangue" (Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation); organization of the Crab Fair in Soure (PA) against illegal extraction; and advocacy actions, such as the "Free Mangroves" protest at the opening of COP30, in Ver-o-Peso (Belém), against oil exploration in the Equatorial Margin.

Beneficiary communities

Around 60 young people from 13 youth groups from Resex and an APA on the coast of Pará (such as Soure, Mestre Lucindo and Marapanim) and extractive communities on the coast: 584 people reached directly and 1,168 indirectly in 21 communities.

Role of youth

The network operates horizontally between the 13 youth groups: young people from different Resex meet at the Mangrove Youth Conferences to exchange experiences and build the network's action plan together, instead of receiving it ready-made from outside. Each Resex maintains its own local young leadership, such as Erivelton Nascimento Chaves (Soure) and Gê Monteiro (Mestre Lucindo).

Results

Through the "Voltando às minhas raízes" project (Fundo Brasil), the network trained 40 young leaders and reached 584 people directly and 1,168 indirectly in 21 communities, with local actions such as the rescue of vegetable fiber coffers in São Caetano de Odivelas and a medicinal plant bed at Resex Mestre Lucindo. He also participated in SP Climate Week and COP30, where one of his young people represented the youth of Marajó.

Complementary information

Funding type

Mixed

Local climate problem

The mangroves on the coast of Pará face increasing pressure from unsustainable extractive practices, oil exploration projects in the Equatorial Margin (Foz do Amazonas) and the impacts of rising sea levels and coastal erosion on communities whose livelihoods depend directly on the mangrove ecosystem — the largest continuous and most preserved area of mangroves in the world (11,229 km², part of the Macromaré Mangrove Coast of the Amazon, which accounts for 56.6% of Brazil's mangroves).

National sociopolitical context

The topic gained great national visibility during COP30, held in Belém (PA) in 2025, when Rede Cuíra carried out public actions against IBAMA's authorization for the drilling of an oil well by Petrobras in the Equatorial Margin, dialoguing directly with the agenda of the Climate Plan 2024-2035 and the National Adaptation Strategy.

Strategic alliances

The Mamirauá Institute offers technical support to the network; the Fundo Brasil, Raízes and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation finance it through projects such as “Voltando às minhas raízes” and “Sustenta Mangue”, and GEF/FAO/MCTI include it in the “Entre Águas Amazônicas” project. In the territory, the network works with Rede Mães do Mangue, ASSUREMAS, ICMBio (Resex manager), Rare and Ideflor-bio for the management and defense of mangroves.

Enabling and limiting factors

Facilitator: strong territorial and cultural identity of extractive communities ("guardians of the Amazon mangroves"); consolidated technical support from the Mamirauá Institute. Condition: dependence on external financing for the formal existence of the network, and pressure from large economic interests (oil) on the territory.

Co-benefits

Strengthening young extractive leaders, protecting one of the largest mangrove ecosystems in the world, generating sustainable income (crab harvesting) and international visibility of the agenda at COP30.

Scalability

Youth network model per biome replicable in other Amazonian coastal regions and mangrove areas on the Brazilian coast (from Amapá to Santa Catarina), as long as there is technical support from a reference organization and financing from socio-environmental funds to support the institutional formalization of the network — decisive, according to Rede Cuíra itself.

Long-term sustainability

It depends on the construction and effective implementation of the network's action plan and continued financing from partner socio-environmental funds (Fundo Brasil, Raízes, Moore Foundation).