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On World Environment Day, Le Monde Diplomatique Brasil and CESE launch a special podcast “Living Territory: the fight against climate change in the Cerrado”
05 de June de 2023


On 5 June, World Environment Day, the newspaper Le Monde Diplomatique Brasil (in Portuguese) launched a special series “Living Territory: the fight against climate change in the Cerrado”, in a partnership between the Guilhotina podcast and the Ecumenical Coordination of Service (Coordenadoria Ecumênica de Serviço: CESE). The special series will explore how to tackle climate change from the perspective of the territorial rights of traditional peoples and communities of the Cerrado.
Over four fortnightly episodes the series will look at the experiences of the traditional peoples and communities in the Cerrado – with a particular focus on MATOPIBA – showing how their ways of life, their socio-biodiversity, their relationship with the countryside, the waters and the forests are essential for tackling the climate crisis. The podcast will also look at the importance of ensuring that these people remain in their territories.
The first episode of the series will include the experiences of female babassu coconut breakers from Piauí, starting with a report from Helena Gomes da Silva, Coordinator of the Interstate Movement of Babassu Coconut Breakers (Movimento Interestadual da Quebradeiras de Coco Babaçu: MIQCB), as well as from the evergreen flower pickers from Minas Gerais, through the words of Maria de Fátima Alves, or Tatinha, from the Commission for the Defence of the Rights of Extractivist Communities (Comissão em Defesa dos Direitos das Comunidades Extrativistas: CODECEX).
The Living Territory special intends to break from the routines of the hegemonic press, which only covers traditional peoples and communities at times of tragedy. The series will look at these communities’ confrontations for their rights against agribusiness, water-business, mining, ranchers and other large-scale enterprises, but the principal aim is to value their ways of life. To denounce by announcing.
The partnership between CESE and Le Monde Diplomatique Brasil isyet another activity to commemorate the 50th anniversary of CESE’s foundation. Follow the release of this special series, which demonstrates that the possibilities for the future come from the Earth and are ancestral!
Listen to the first episode on the best podcast players or on the Le Monde Diplomatique Brasil website. (in Portuguese)
SEE WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT US
Over these 50 years, we have received the gift of CESE’s presence in our communities. We are witness to how much companionship and solidarity it has invested in our territories. And this has been essential for us to carry on the struggle and defence of our people.
When we hear talk of the struggles of the peoples of the waters, of the forests, of the semi-arid region, of the city peripheries and of the most varied organizations, we see and hear that CESE is there, at their side, without replacing the subjects of the struggle. Supporting, creating the conditions so that they can follow their own path. It is this spirit that we, at ASA, want you to maintain. We wish you long life in this work to support transformation.
You have to praise CESE’s capacity to find answers so as to extend support to projects from traditional peoples and communities, from family farming, from women; its recognition of the multiple meanings of the right to land, to water and to territory; the importance of citizenship and democracy, including environmental racism and the right to identity in diversity in its discussion agenda, and its support for the struggles and assertion of the values of solidarity and difference.
I am a macumba devotee, but I love being with partners whose thinking is different from ours and who respect our form of organization. CESE is one such partner: it helps to build bridges, which are so necessary to ensure that freedom, diversity, respect and solidarity can flow. These 50 years have involved a lot of struggles and the construction of a new world.
In the name of historical and structural racism, many people look at us, black women, and think that we aren’t competent, intelligent, committed or have no identity. Our experience with CESE is different. We are a diverse group of black women. We are in varied places and have varied stories! It’s important to know this and to believe in us. Thank you CESE, for believing in us. For seeing our plurality and investing in us.
CESE was set up during the most violent year of the Military Dictatorship, when torture had been institutionalized, when arbitrary imprisonment, killings and the disappearance of political prisoners had intensified. The churches had the courage to come together and create an institution that could be a living witness of the Christian faith in the service of the Brazilian people. I’m so happy that CESE has reached its 50th anniversary, improving as it matures.