Brazil has taken an important step in recognising the cultural dimension of cooperativism. With the publication of Law 15.433/2026, cooperativism is now formally recognised as a manifestation of national culture, acknowledging the historic contribution of cooperatives to Brazil’s social, economic and community development.
The new law highlights values at the heart of the cooperative model, including mutual help, democratic participation, shared responsibility and collective development. It also reinforces the role of the State in supporting and encouraging cooperative activity, confirming what cooperators have long demonstrated in practice: cooperation is not only an economic model, but also a living cultural expression rooted in communities.
This recognition comes at a timely moment for the global cooperative movement. The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), through its Cooperative Cultural Heritage (CCH) project, is working to identify, safeguard and promote the tangible and intangible heritage of cooperation around the world. Launched in 2025 during the UN International Year of Cooperatives, the ICA CCH initiative began with an inaugural list of 32 cooperative heritage sites from 25 countries, presented through a dedicated global map. In 2026, the initiative is expanding its scope, including new sites and exploring intangible cultural elements that reflect cooperative ideas, practices, traditions and governance systems. The 2026 Cooperative Cultural Heritage listing will be unveiled in Panama during the ICA Global Conference, where cooperatives will have a major opportunity to show how their heritage contributes to peace, sustainable development and cultural diversity.
The Brazilian law also connects with an important international precedent. In 2016, UNESCO inscribed the “Idea and practice of organising shared interests in cooperatives” on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This recognition affirmed that cooperative practices carry social and cultural value across generations. The UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage provides a legally binding international framework for safeguarding living heritage. Its value lies not only in recognition, but in encouraging States, communities and institutions to identify, document, transmit and protect cultural practices that remain alive in people’s daily lives.
For cooperatives, this opens an important pathway. From historic buildings and museums to local traditions, democratic practices and community-based economic life, cooperative heritage shows how people organise together to meet shared needs. Brazil’s new recognition adds momentum to this global effort led by the Global Working Group, supported through a joint secretariat comprising OCB, NCDC (India) and the ICA Global Office, and strengthens the case for placing cooperatives more visibly within cultural policy, sustainable development and heritage agendas.
