Criminal fires, the drying up of the rivers, the death of the plantations, women disproportionately suffering the impact of pesticides and climate change. All these aspects were reported by the various representatives who participated in the “Exchange between the Peoples of the Cerrado” workshop run by CESE in partnership with the Agro is Fire Coalition (Articulação Agro é Fogo), Alternatives for Small Farming in Tocantins (Alternativas para a Pequena Agricultura no Tocantins: APA-TO), the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement in Tocantins (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra no Tocantins: MST-TO) and PEMPXÀ – the Apinajé Community Union Association (Associação União das Aldeias Apinajé).
The meeting took place in Araguatins (Tocantins: TO) between 11 and 13 July, and was aimed at establishing an arena for political reflection about the impacts of climate change on territorial rights and the importance of production initiatives in the territories of the Cerrado, in particular in the MATOPIBA region (made up of mostly Cerrado areas in the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia). It also focused on the resistance and struggle for the guarantee of the rights of women, the black and indigenous populations and the communities in these territories, as well as on combatting criminal fires.
In the presence of indigenous peoples, traditional communities, quilombolas, and peasant workers from the Cerrado and Amazon, the three days were marked by opportunities to share knowledge and know-how, to dialogue about problems that afflict the region and the lives of its peoples, as well as to network to confront the death projects of the agribusiness cycle, the criminal fires and deforestation that impact on climate change at global level.
The group travelled to the Cocalinha Community on Apinajé Indigenous Land and experienced a day with a great deal of exchange, getting to know the beauties of the Cerrado and hearing female leaders’ knowledge on the ground.
Fire is a central element in the lives of the Apinajé. Traditional burning involves knowledge and experience through coexistence and a direct relationship with nature developed over centuries by the indigenous peoples, quilombolas and traditional populations of the Cerrado. It constitutes a means of using burning to prevent large fires. The technique consists of burning some of the leaves, grasses, branches, vines and dry trunks in the period before the dry season, which is extremely critical.
Traditional burning does not represent a threat to the forests, springs or riparian forests, since these areas are still soggy and damp when the fires occur. In these circumstances, the fire advances up to certain limits and then goes out of its own accord, because it does not encounter the conditions required to advance into the forest. And in the open fields the pequi, cashew and bacuri trees and other plants in the Cerrado do not suffer any damage to their flowering, which begins at this time.
The Apinajé also deal with natural fires, which occur during the drier periods, with strong winds and the accumulation of materials within the riparian forests, something which may cause fire outbreaks to more easily get out of control.
But, within this whole spectrum there are also criminal fires, set by agribusiness, interested in deforesting, invading and planting soya crops in these regions. In the MATOPIBA areas, strategic violence has occurred and frequent attempts have been made to criminalize the traditional burning of the traditional peoples and communities of the Cerrado in the face of the fires caused by agribusiness.
In 2014, to protect the territory, the Apinajé Indigenous Fire Brigade was set up to prevent and combat criminal fires. Most of the firefighters are men, but there are women too. They are young – aged, on average, between 18 and 25 years of age. They are trained and prepared by the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis: IBAMA) and use this training and traditional knowledge to combat criminal fires and implement integrated management.
Combatting the fires
Fire is also a central element in the lives of the workshop participants. The quilombola Silvanei Barros lives in a disputed territory in which people frequently suffer from criminal fires. “Sometimes, we aren’t able to control them. They come out of nowhere, nobody knows where they come from. Last time we lost three houses, there wasn’t time to remove anything. What we recommend is that people clear the areas close to their houses as much as possible”.
Marlene Santos from the Peasant Coalition of Tocantins (Articulação Camponesa do Tocantins) gave a similar report. “Every year we suffer from fires and they are criminal ones. Because it’s an injustice they want to commit. It’s from one side to the other. The smoke, it affects your health. Smoke, flu, throat, fevers.” She also denounced the impacts of pesticides used by the ranchers around her community.
“In the dry period, the plants die, there’s no cure … We are under pressure then, the ranchers nearby, everyone wants to deal in soya, there’s that poison they spray, the wind brings it, everything gets mixed up. Smoke, poison, affecting the forest, the waters, we drink it and it becomes a crazy mixture that ends up in death. I think if they do more research in our region, they’ll confirm that the poison and the burning, it’s all harmful,” she added.
Exchange
Exchanging experiences between the groups always provides a rich moment, with a lot of sharing of knowledge and inspiration to continue in the fight. Socorro Teixeira, from the Interstate Movement of Babassu Coconut Breakers (Movimento Interestadual das Quebradeiras de Coco Babaçu: MIQCB), talked about the various support mobilization strategies they have adopted in the states in which they operate and highlighted the importance of dialogue.
“Exchange is important because I listen to your story, you listen to mine. Things that I do, sometimes you don’t yet do. Both to denounce and to announce, to question, to claim, to preserve. That’s how we learn. And, what’s most important, is holding each other’s hands. We know that our stories go together. We hold hands to achieve results.”
Adenil Ferreira, also from the Peasant Coalition of Tocantins, reinforced the need for these moments of exchange. “It’s a way of sharing the general day-to-day lives of people from the countryside. Every life is a story. Every location has a problem. When we come together like this, it feels like the energy moves from one to another. One encourages the other. We learn.”
Additional information from the Agro is Fire Coalition