The caatinga climate, adverse to family agriculture with its long and uncertain drought spells, poses serious environmental challenges. All this burdens local populations with extreme hardships: impoverished, with no access to jobs or basic sanitation or utilities, let alone education.

Associação Caatinga, trying to intervene in this process, established a center in Crateús, Ceará, where it manages a 5.646 hectares area at the Serra das Almas reservation (RNSA), preserving its biodiversity and seeking integrated, creative solutions to fight the social and environmental challenges in the caatingas and improve living conditions.

The project Natureza Jovem - Protetores da Serra has been sponsored by Instituto Unibanco since 2004. It uses courses, workshops, cultural exhibits, events and volunteer work to devise initiatives combining conservation, citizenship and social integration, serving teenagers through young adults up to 23 years old. They come from the estimated 1,700 low-income families living in five communities surrounding the RNSA, four of them in Ceará and one in Piauí.

The activities they participate in cover citizenship, the environment, biodiversity, arson, waste recycling, hunting threatened species, sustainable development, drugs and alcohol. They are presented in an experiential manner, seeking to nurture new leadership skills and promote change. Instituto Unibanco contribution includes the introduction of commercial-scale production of local crafts, an income-producing alternative that lends the project longer-term sustainability.

Some 130 people have joined in, and 95 of them continue to participate.