Associations for business partnerships is a tool for migrant or other marginalised forest dependent communities. It helps such marginalised natural resource smallholders to engage with, compete in, and benefit from market economies. This paper describes the approach in the context of the Brazilian Amazon frontier and presents evidence for its efficacy in overcoming marginalisation.

A summary card of this tool is available to download in four languages in PDF format:

English (47K) | French (47K) | Spanish (47K) | Portuguese (47K)

The complete tool is also available (PDF format):

English (275K, 23pp) | French (311K, 26pp) | Spanish (620K, 24pp) | Portuguese (289K, 25pp)

Please cite this tool as:

Merry, F. and Macqueen, D. 2005. Associations for business partnerships. Power tools series. Woods Hole Research Centre, Woods Hole, USA, Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia , Belem, Brazil and International Institute for Environment and Development, London, UK.

A case study from the Amazon provides further insight into local institution-building by new migrants:

Merry, F., Lina, E., Amacher, G., Almeida, O., Alves, A. and Dos Santos, M.R.G. (2004) Overcoming marginalization in the Brazilian Amazon through community association: Case studies of forests and fisheries. IPAM and IIED, London, UK. View PDF (694 K).

For further information:

• Contact: Frank Merry (fmerry@whrc.org) and Duncan Macqueen (duncan.macqueen@iied.org)