Partnerships, Learning, and Adaptation: A Cooperative Founded by Japanese Immigrants in the Amazon Rainforest
Maria Sylvia Macchione Saes, Vivian-Lara Silva, Rubens Nunes, Tamara Maria Gomes

Abstract
This paper discusses the case of Tomé-Açu Mixed Agricultural Cooperative (CAMTA), founded by Japanese immigrants in the Amazon Rainforest. Its origins date back to the 1920s, when the first Japanese families arrived in Pará state. Since then, CAMTA has overcome numerous obstacles. Under less severe conditions, many other organizations would have disappeared, but like the Phoenix CAMTA seems to emerge from sever crises even stronger. What conditions have led to this resilience? What are the main teaching and managerial implications emerging from this case? Our main objective is to understand the internal mechanisms of both learning and adaptation, and to approach resilience from a supporting social group perspective. In-depth interviews conducted by the authors themselves with cooperative managers and members support the discussion. Going further in the traditional bias of resilience, our main findings highlight the organizational ability to establish partnerships that grow stronger over time, which suggests the role of co-evolution of group identity and resources, particularly human resources.

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