TIFS highlights the regeneration model of the Cerrado das Águas.

International publication analyzes how collaboration, water resilience, and regenerative agriculture are driving the transformation of the Cerrado Mineiro region.

TIFS highlights Cerrado das Águas as a model of water resilience and territorial regeneration.

The TIFS Initiative (Transformational Investing in Food Systems) published an analysis of the performance of Cerrado das Águas and the model built in Cerrado Mineiro to integrate agricultural production, environmental conservation, and climate resilience on a territorial scale.

Titled “Cerrado das Águas: Building Water Resilience for Territorial Regeneration in Brazil's Coffee Heartland” , the content presents the trajectory of the collaborative platform and starts from a central principle for its operation: the resilience of a rural property is directly related to the health of the entire hydrographic basin of which it is a part.

Collaboration to transform the territory

One of the points highlighted by TIFS is the pre-competitive collaboration model developed by Cerrado das Águas. The initiative brings together companies that compete in the market, rural producers, research institutions, and public authorities around challenges that need to be faced collectively, especially water availability and climate resilience.

In this model, water security ceases to be treated merely as an individual issue for each property or company and becomes understood as a shared responsibility across the territory.

The publication also addresses the work carried out with producers to expand the adoption of regenerative practices, combining technical assistance, knowledge, and access to networks and resources. Regeneration is presented in an integrated manner, involving improvements in soil health and water infiltration, restoration of Permanent Preservation Areas and Legal Reserves, reconnection of forest fragments, and development of agroecological systems.

From local action to large-scale transformation.

TIFS's analysis highlights that the results go beyond isolated interventions on farms. The model connects global companies in the coffee supply chain to local producers, universities, support organizations, and funders, creating a framework capable of promoting landscape-scale change.

Among the effects noted are the recovery of ecological connectivity, the strengthening of supply chains linked to restoration and organic inputs, the improvement of soil health and water functions, and a change in the producers' own perception of regenerative practices.

Partnership with TIFS and new avenues for financing.

The Cerrado das Águas project became part of TIFS's Regenerative Catalysts Program in August 2025. The partnership then took on a new challenge: transforming an already established model into a structure prepared to scale up and receive new investments.

According to the publication, the joint work contributed to strengthening the financial architecture and positioning of the CCA within a broader investment ecosystem. The analysis also draws attention to a fundamental issue for the future of the regenerative transition: the need for financial mechanisms capable of absorbing some of the risks faced by producers in the first years of adopting new practices.

Among the possibilities mentioned are parametric insurance and other risk mitigation instruments, associated with attracting patient and catalytic capital.

Rather than funding individual projects, this approach proposes investing in the ecological infrastructure of the territory, recognizing that soil, water, biodiversity, and production are part of the same system.

A model with the potential for replication.

The publication also highlights the potential of the model developed by Cerrado das Águas to contribute to other Brazilian landscapes and river basins.

Experience shows that production and conservation need not be competing objectives. By connecting science, agriculture, governance, and financing, territorial regeneration can become a strategy to simultaneously strengthen water security, agricultural production, and the capacity to adapt to climate change.

Read the full analysis published by the TIFS Initiative Cerrado das Águas: Building Water Resilience for Territorial Regeneration in Brazil's Coffee Heartland.