With support from the Giving for Change programme, support mobilization by the Interstate Movement of Babassu Coconut Breakers (Movimento Interestadual das Quebradeiras de Coco Babaçu: MIQCB) has led to approval of a state law to protect the babassu palm tree.
The Free Babassu Law (#7888), a victory for the struggles of female babassu coconut breakers, was ratified on 9 December 2022, by Regina Sousa, the governor of Piauí. The MIQCB led a campaign aimed at informing society and the public authorities of the need to prohibit the felling of babassu palm trees. Because of this project the Babassu Coconut Breakers in the Struggle for Free Access and Babassu Protections, supported by CESE through the Giving for Change programme, were able to run a series of activities to mobilize support and pressurize the public authorities to approve the law.
The Free Babassu Law guarantees free access to babassu trees by agro-extractivist communities, while banning the practice of pesticide spraying, the burning of babassu trees and the cutting of the coconut cluster in its entirety, since this compromises the reproductive life of the palms. The law also supports the sustainable use of the babassu coconut and encourages measures beneficial for the environment and traditional communities.
According to Marinalda Rodrigues da Silva, Executive Coordinator of the MIQCB’s Piauí regional office, the babassu coconut is immensely important for traditional peoples in the state. “It means sustenance, food, oil production, income for the communities and women. We make handicrafts from the babassu coconut mesocarp. We can make cakes, soap, detergent, in short, it’s the communities’ greatest source of income. The coconut is life and the babassu coconut is our mother,” she declared.
“The MIQCB ran the Free Babassu Campaign in defence of the right to live in free territories and calling for protection of babassu palm trees, preventing the destruction of vegetation and calling for free access to the palm,” Marinalda explained. Through the project, it was possible to mobilize civil society, putting pressure on the public authorities. A commission for the defence of the Law was set up and public hearings were held to discuss the proposal and the communities’ urgent needs.
Mobilizing support – “The mobilizing support project was decisive, enabling us to speed up approval of the law at the Piauí Legislative Assembly and its ratification by the state government. Our struggle now is for implementation, ensuring it becomes effective in practice and not simply on paper,” Marinalda confirmed. She also pointed out that the social movements encounter problems in enforcing the law because of the economic power of landowners, some of whom are members of the legislative.
In her assessment, “without the project, in partnership with CESE, we wouldn’t have been able to mobilize in order for the law to be approved. This law will benefit all the communities that have some form of native fruit, not just babassu coconuts. We met other entities and movements through the project and having the law approved is a great victory. Its implementation will be an even greater achievement.
Through this funding, the MIQCB participated in training activities and discussions that began in 2021, alongside other CESE initiatives aimed at sharing experiences and lesson- learning, such as those for strengthening the traditional peoples and communities of the Cerrado.
The MIQCB in Piauí has progressed through three projects supported by CESE that have enabled it to operate in the territories. This partnership has triggered the mobilizing of support and training programs, leading to approval of the law while strengthening female market traders and improving the quality of products made from babassu coconut.
The Free Babassu Law also recognizes traditional activities involving the harvesting and breaking of babassu coconuts, as well as the resulting products and the traditional way of producing them as a cultural heritage of the state of Piauí. The MIQCB continues to organize women to apply the necessary political pressure on bodies, with a particular focus on the Department of the Environment, the Lands Institute and the Department of Culture, to ensure free access for the female babassu coconut breakers, protect their territory, preserve the water sources as well as human and animal life.