Action Aid Projects

A worker gathers shelled babassu nuts for pressing at the Cooperative of Agro-extractivist Producers Lago de Junco (COPALJ) in the countryside of Brazil's northeastern state of Maranhao. The babassu palm, native to this northeastern corner of Brazil, is an important part of the local culture and economy - more than 60 products come from it including oil used for cooking and cosmetics as well as the nutshell which is used as cooking fuel. The Association of Land Reform Settlements of Maranhao State (ASSEMA) is an umbrella NGO of associations operated for and by rural peasants and babassu nut crackers, which British NGO Action Aid has helped support ASSEMA since 1999. The COPALJ manages the pressing of the babassu nuts into oil and sells the product on the national and international market.(AustralFoto/Douglas Engle)

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A worker gathers shelled babassu nuts for pressing at the Cooperative of Agro-extractivist Producers Lago de Junco (COPALJ) in the countryside of Brazil's northeastern state of Maranhao. The babassu palm, native to this northeastern corner of Brazil, is an important part of the local culture and economy - more than 60 products come from it including oil used for cooking and cosmetics as well as the nutshell which is used as cooking fuel. The Association of Land Reform Settlements of Maranhao State (ASSEMA) is an umbrella NGO of associations operated for and by rural peasants and babassu nut crackers, which British NGO Action Aid has helped support ASSEMA since 1999. The COPALJ manages the pressing of the babassu nuts into oil and sells the product on the national and international market.(AustralFoto/Douglas Engle)

engle brazil charity ngo britain england agriculture peasant babassu maranhao