The Power of Unconventional Growth: Brazilian regional government's promotion of culturally sustainable entrepreneurship for traditional communities

Abstract

Brazil has made significant progress towards improving the conditions for its population. However, it continues to face several challenges regarding poverty reduction, environmental protection and cultural preservation, especially for indigenous peoples and quilombolas. Through the analysis of three existing regional programs that tackle these issues (Vale do Futuro-SP; Programa Maranhão Quilombola- MA and Economia Popular Solidária - MG), this paper assesses the existing policies, their impacts in traditional communities and the existing challenges to their implementation. The paper argues that regional government’s promotion of culturally sustainable entrepreneurship is a key method to improve social and political, economic, environmental, and cultural conditions for traditional peoples and communities. However, these programs need to overcome several existing challenges for its successful implementation, including lack of governmental political awareness, lack of resources and technical training, the commodification of poverty, lack of impact evaluation of programs, discontinuity of public policies, lack of certification of traditional communities and difficulties of creating transversal programs.