Appeal n° 313 (from 26 December 2007 to 28 February 2008)

In the North of Brazil, bordering the Amazon forest, the survival of hundreds of thousands of women and their families is threatened by the large land exploiters who hinder their access to the natural resource that they have been using for many generations, an indigenous palm called “babassu”. This tree, covering 18 million hectares in this region of Brazil, and from which the nuts are used for manufacturing a number of products such as oil, soap and even flour, has allowed poor families of the region to meet their needs for many years. It is estimated that today there are still 400,000 women who survive by gathering, breaking and selling the babassu nuts. They are called the quebradeiras (babassu nut breakers). However, since the second half of the last century, when the large landowners began to expel poor farmers and their families - the majority of whom were unable to prove that the land they had been cultivating for decades belonged to them -these women’s access to this resource has constantly been threatened.

“The palm is an indigenous resource. The large landowners don’t buy the babassu. They are only interested in the land”, explains Antonia Vieria de Sousa, a nut breaker for 40 years. Her colleague, Domingas Fátima Freitas, from the Jatobá community in the State of Piauí, explains the implications of burning the babassu : “Everyone is unemployed in the areas where they burn all the babassu. Only six people employed to gather and burn them, have work. The women are being ruined. If the companies continue to burn the babassu, the women will cease to be the breakers of babassu and will revert to being simply employees as they were in the past. In those days, we took 6 hours to gather 10kg of babassu. We had to give 5 kilos to the landowner in order to earn 26 dollars at the end of the day. What will the forest be like after some years if the companies take all the shells of the babassu to burn them? We know that we have to preserve the babassu for our livelihood. That, the big companies don’t care about.”

The movement of the babassu nut breakers

Hundreds of thousands of women, in the States of Maranhão, Piauí, Tocantins and Pará, live off small parcels of land and struggle to feed their families. With the babassu nuts they produce oil, soap, flour, charcoal, roofs, baskets, fans and other local arts and crafts. But for a number of years the babassu have no longer been a source of accessible and abundant income. The majority of the palms are found on effectively private property and the women only have access to half the nuts they gathered before. Their trade has become precarious and their future uncertain.

Encouraged by unjust government practices, new landowners uproot the palms in order to raise cattle. Moreover in recent years, with the development of agribusiness, new threats have appeared such as the elimination of babassu trees in favour of soy cultivation and the production of agro-fuels. The interest of the metallurgy industry in using the shells of the nuts as combustible plant matter has equally increased the demand for this precious natural resource. However, the incineration of the nut in its entirety prevents them from being used for other essential purposes such as their transformation into oil, soap or flour. And, since the shells now have a higher value than the nuts, the women are once again pushed out of the market.

After years of conflict between the farmers and the large landowners, the women have however dared to fight for the babassu. They have founded organisations that represent their interests, improve their working conditions and commercialise their products. They are equally well organised to fight against poverty and to defend their rights. In this way, in the early 90’s they organised the first meeting for the commercial interests of the babassu harvesters and, in 2001, they created the Inter-State Movement for the Babassu Nut Breakers [1]. The objective of the movement was primarily to obtain political recognition for their work with the babassu nuts as an economic activity in its own and, at the same time, as a source of political and personal power, and in this way, to fight for the protection of the environment. Today, by trying to protect these trees, the movement defends the rights of these women to live on the land of their ancestors and, by extension, their right to food.

A law to protect the babassu

Advances have been made in the past five years. The women have found a way to legally oppose the practices of the big landowners, notably by the adoption of a law to protect the babassu. This law allows the harvesters of babassu free access to the palms, even if they are found on private property. It guarantees the breakers the right to freely utilise the nuts to feed their families and to contribute to the economy of the community. This law equally guarantees the preservation of the babassu tree, by prohibiting deforestation, the use of pesticides and the exploitation of cultivation that is detrimental to it. It is currently in force in 13 municipalities, in three of the five States where the babassu grows (Maranhão, Tocantins and Pará). However, without an agreement at national level, the law does not sufficiently guarantee the babassu’s protection. The Brazilian babassu nut breakers are demanding that the law be guaranteed in all the municipalities and States concerned, through national legislation, and a bill to that effect has now been tabled in Congress. Support the babassu nut breakers by appealing to the Brazilian authorities to pass and enforce this national law.

TO KNOW MORE

Appeal launched in liaison with: ActionAid Brazil

as part of the HungerFree campaign

Rosana Heringer in France: Rosana, coordinator of the women’s rights programme at ActionAid Brazil, visited us last November during the International Solidarity Week, and conducted a tour that enabled her to meet with a number of different local Peuples Solidaires’ groups.

This urgent petition was launched under the auspices of the programme: "The right to development for all" of the CRID, with financial assistance from the European Union. Its contents are the accepted responsibility of the CRID and Peuples Solidaires and may not in any way be considered a reflection of the position of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor of the European Union

WRITE!

By letter: Download the standard letter below or use your own wording. Remember to add your name, address and signature before sending it.
Letter of support: so that the MIQCB has an idea of the support on which they can lean, return the letter of support to them!
E-mail: Send a protest e-mail on-line !
Deadline for reaction: on reception, and until 28 February 2008.

PROTEST LETTER:

Sr. Arlindo Chinaglia
Presidente, Câmara dos Deputados, Congresso Nacional
Gabinete 706 - Anexo IV
Praça dos Três Poderes
Brasília - DF
BRAZIL

Sr. Arlindo Chinaglia,

Estoy escrevendo para solicitar a imediata discussão e aprovação da lei destinada à proteção das palmeiras de babaçu no Brasil e à proteção dos trabalhadores e das trabalhadoras, na sua maioria mulheres, que colhem e quebram o coco babaçu para garantir sua sobrevivência. Trata-se do projeto de lei numero 231/2007, referente à chamada Lei do Babaçu Livre, apresentado pelo Deputado Domingos Dutra (PT/MA).
Eu apóio os esforços do Movimento Interestadual de Quebradeiras de Coco Babaçu (MIQCB), que luta ha muitos anos pela proteção das palmeiras e pelo seu direito ao trabalho.Espero que o Congresso Nacional brasileiro dê prioridade à discussão e aprovação desta lei que vai beneficiar 400.000 mulheres nas regiões Norte do Brasil.

Atenciosamente,

SUPPORT LETTER:

MIQCB
Rua Nascimiento de Moraes, 437
São Francisco - São Luis
CEP 65076-320
MA BRAZIL

Estimadas companheiras da MIQCB,

Escrevi à Arlindo Chinaglia, Presidente da Câmara dos Deputados do Brasil, para solicitar a imediata discussão e aprovação da lei destinada à proteção das palmeiras de babaçu no Brasil e à proteção dos trabalhadores e das trabalhadoras. Eu apóio os esforços do Movimento Interestadual de Quebradeiras de Coco Babaçu (MIQCB), que luta ha muitos anos pela proteção das palmeiras e pelo seu direito ao trabalho.

Em solidaridariedade,

TRANSLATIONS:

Support letter
Dear friends of MIQCB,
I have written to Arlindo Chinaglia, president of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, to ask him to immediately discuss and approve the legislation for the protection of the babassu palms and for the protection of the Brazilian breakers of babassu.
I support the struggle of the Commercial Movement for the Breakers of Babassu(MIQCB), who have been demanding the protection of the palm trees and respect for their right to work, for many years. (Greetings)

[1] Movimiento Interestadual das Quebradeiras de Coco Babaçu (MIQCB)