Public Note | Fires in the territories!
11 de October de 2024
The Agro is Fire Coalition (Articulação Agro é Fogo) publicly denounces the systematic and orchestrated incidents of criminal fires around Brazil, which have had major a impact on the population, fauna and flora of Brazil’s various biomes.
The fires have left huge scars, especially on traditional communities and indigenous peoples, which is exacerbated by the arrival of drought. Most communities lack the necessary equipment and resources, and, although volunteer and self-organized fire brigades have bravely fought back, the scars are severe. It has affected the genetic heritage of the territories and their ways of life, including their homes, sacred sites, community spaces, crops, gardens; directly impacting on food security, causing desertification and threatening Brazil’s drainage basins.
The communities now have two problems to tackle: the fires and the drought, with their health further aggravated by respiratory, cardiac and psychological problems. As Adriano Karipuna, an indigenous leader from Rondônia said: “It’s not just the flu or a cold, it’s that the climate is dry. ‘Drink a lot of water’, that’s what they say. So there’s no solution, either to contain the fire, the criminal fire, or to solve the problems suffered because of the smoke, because inhaling this toxic smoke is horrible for any human being. And the hospitals [are] getting more and more crowded with our people”.
SEE WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT US
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.