EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE PACK

Brazil’s Warrior Women Women’s movement for access to Babassu oil

COUNTRY - BRAZIL RELEASED SEPTEMBER 2014

COUNTRY: BRAZIL

FILM DURATION: 7:33

YOUTUBE: ​https://youtu.be/VGE0O-oxdSs

WEBPAGE​: ​ http://ifnotusthenwho.me/film/womens-

movement-access-babassu-oil/

AVAILABLE IN 4 LANGUAGES CONTENTS

The Film • Threats to the Babassu Nut Breakers • Synopsis • Babassu Nut Breakers Organising • Screenplay & Sequencing • MIQCB: Interstate Movement of Babassu breakers • Presentation of Protagonists & Principal Speakers • Free Babassu Laws • The Filmmakers • Strengthening the Movement • Filming Intention & Context • New Threats Theme • Community Mapping • Keywords • Land Rights & Access • Key Facts • Women/gender About Brazil • Fair Trade • Agriculture • Scales of Production • Deforestation Preparing for Discussion • Land Tenure System Further Information Context & Current Situation • Characteristics of Babassu Palm • Babassu Palm Uses and Properties

1 Brazil’s Warrior Women

2 THE FILM

SYNOPSIS

The humble babassu palm provides a livelihood for Struggle for Access communities of women across North Eastern Brazil. 00:03:56 to 00:04:45 Bread, charcoal, oil and soap are produced from the The women started a grassroots movement to fight nut and husk; the surplus is sold on. But production these threats, gaining momentum at a regional has not always been so peaceful. Babassu: Brazil’s level. The long struggle of the women’s movement Warrior Women tells the story of the hard battle to established the “Free Babassu Law” in municipalities, maintain these communities’ way of life. In the face protecting the babassu forests and giving the landless of intimidation and threats from farmers for years, babassu nut gatherers free access. By uniting and Babassu women have negotiated their own terms; organising the women creative power, together they creating a grassroots movement and establishing achieve social change. the ‘Free Babassu Law’ in seven states. The law gives landless coconut gatherers rights to collect from palm Growing their Business groves. These inspiring women are now able to plan 00:04:46 to 00:06:56 for the long-term, diversifying their business and With the security of the Free Babassu Law, the women securing their future. They fight for their families, can now develop their fair trade business, diversifying their forests and the Amazon as a whole. production to sell juice to school lunch providers. They are providing for their families and protecting the forests in this borderland between the Cerrado SCREENPLAY & SEQUENCING and the Amazon, as well benefiting the Amazon basin as a whole. Brazil’s Warrior Women Nut Breakers Introduce the Babassu Nut 00:00:00 to 00:02:15 Who are the Babassu nut breakers? What do they use this nut for? What is at stake in their fight for access to the Babassu forests? The film begins showing the women at work breaking the babassu nuts and describing its health benefits and culinary uses. Rosa Barbosa De Sousa emphasises the importance the babassu nut has had to her and her family through her entire life. Maria de Jesus Ferreira Bringelo roasts babassu oil for food in her home; the rest is used for cleaning products and sold.

Threats to the Nut Breakers 00:02.28 to 00:03:55 There have been many threats to the women’s access to the Babassu forests. They were threatened and attacked by those wanting to stop them and their way of life. Maria Do Socorro tells of a community destroyed; attackers raped a woman and then left her to be eaten by animals.

3 PROTAGONISTS & PRINCIPAL SPEAKERS THE FILMMAKERS

Babassu breakers from the Interstate Movement of Director: Paul Redman Babassu Breakers (MIQCB): Producer: Tim Lewis;

• Maria do Socorro - Financial Coordinator at Paul Redman is an award winning documentary MIQCB filmmaker whose films have covered issues including • Emmile de Costa the trade in tiger parts, whale and dolphin trade, illegal • Maria de Jesus Ferreira Bringelo, ‘Dona Tije’ - logging and the ivory trade. He has worked extensively Vice-Coordinator at MIQCB in hazardous environments, using both open and • Rosa Barbosa de Sousa covert filming techniques, and has trained activists • Ide Pereisa de Sousa media-based campaigning techniques in Indonesia, • Eunice Costa - Communications Secretary at Papua, India and Tanzania. In 2006 he founded the MIQCB production company Handcrafted Films with Tim • Helena dos Santos Salagat Lewis, which has produced a number of award- • Tonilda de Araujo da Cunha winning films for major development funders (UK • Maria Helena de Jesus Moura DFID, European Forestry Institute, Ford Foundation, CLUA) and non-governmental organisations (Amnesty, WSPA, EIA, Eco Storm). Paul is currently Project Director for ‘If Not Us Then Who?’, an on-going series of films about forest peoples and their battle to protect their lives, their cultures and our forests.

Working as a producer, sound recordist, video editor, photographer and writer, Tim Lewis has produced documentary films for international charities and government agencies, as well as broadcast and corporate pieces. His work has taken him to many difficult, challenging and diverse locations. Filming indigenous communities in the rainforests of Indonesia, Brazil, Central America and Africa; interviewing refugees on the Thai-Burma border, survivors in the debris of Tacloban in the Philippines, following civil rights campaigners through war torn Liberia and the Congo, climbing volcanoes and glaciers in Iceland or filming in the cockpit of Concorde. He is a co-director of Handcrafted Films Ltd and Producer for ‘If Not Us Then Who?’.

4 FILMING INTENTION & CONTEXT

The overall intention was to demonstrate the unique struggle of the Babassu women and show their immense resolve and courage as a grassroots women’s movement. As a group of women they were specifically targeted and intimidated but their strength and their unity has created a powerful success story which needed to be captured and shared.

5 THEME

KEYWORDS

Babassu palm; babassu oil; babassu forests; Attalea martiana; Attalea oleifera; Attalea speciosa; civil society movement; North Eastern Brazil; Maranhão; Pará; Tocantins; Piauí; Free Babassu Law; women’s resistance; babassu cooperative; agro-extractivist; Interstate Movement of Babassu Breakers (MIQCB); Matopiba; traditional communities; quilombola communities; land access; community mapping

6 COUNTRY CONCERNED: BRAZIL

4

KEY FACTS

• 400,000 women extract babassu palm in Brazil with ¾ of them in the states of Maranhão, Piauí, Tocantins and Pará. • Community mapping has now shown that the babassu palm trees cover, with different densities, more than 25 million hectares across four states. 1 • The babassu palm grows up to 20 or 30 m tall and can be 30-40 cm in width. Their fruits are like small, 6-15 cm long, pointed coconuts. • The fruits may contain between two and five almonds and their contents have the following percentage composition by weight: 11% epicarp (the first outer layer of fibers), 23% mesocarp (starch) and endocarp (woody inner layer) 59%, 7% almond. 2 • Babassu palm trees begin to produce fruit after 7-10 years and end at 35, with a productivity of 2.2-15.6 tons of fruit per ha/year.3

1. Movimento Interestadual das Quebradeiras de Coco Babaçu www.miqcb.org/ 2. Baruque Filho, et al. (1998) ‘Ethanol from Babassu Coco- nut starch’. Applied Bio chemistry & Biotechnology, Vol 70-72 3. Nogueira L, Lora E. (2003) Dendroenergia: Fundamentos E Aplicações. Rio de Janeiro: Interciência 4. CIFOR (2005) Forest products, livelihoods and conserva- tion: Case Studies of Non-timber Forest Product Systems volume 3 - Latin America. Eds. Miguel N. Alexiades and Patricia Shanley www.cifor.org/Publications/pdf_files/ Books/BAlexiades0701.pdf

7 ABOUT BRAZIL

AGRICULTURE

Southern Brazil has traditionally been the centre of Soy and cattle production are major drivers of Brazilian agriculture, with its fertile soils and semi- deforestation in Brazil. While there has been a temperate climate, however there has been huge moratorium on soy production in the Amazon region agricultural expansion in the central area within the since 2006, this is not the case in the Cerrado biome, Cerrado biome. While the northeast region is prone where much of the babassu groves are located. Soya to drought, parts of it have been called the “new expansion has been a significant factor in deforestation agricultural frontier” by Brazil’s president, Dilma of the Cerrado or savannah, a biodiversity hotspot Rousseff.5 larger than Mexico. A recent survey suggested that nearly half the original vegetation cover had been lost Brazil is the world’s largest producer of coffee6 and by 2008, and that it is disappearing considerably faster second largest of beef7 and soya8. Its other most than the Amazon forest.13 61% of Brazil is covered by significant products are wheat, rice, corn, sugarcane, forests while 31% is cropland. cocoa and citrus. Agriculture accounts for more than 5% of the Brazilian economy9 and was the only part of the Brazilian economy to grow during 2015, due LAND TENURE SYSTEM mainly to soybean crops, which grew 11.9% and corn production which increased by 7.3%.10 In Brazil there is very unequal land distribution, with many large, family-owned properties and little access to land for the poor. This inequality and insecure DEFORESTATION tenure is a large contributing factor to destruction of forests, rural poverty and migration to violent favelas In 1964 a law was passed that assisted developers to gain in urban areas. A federal land reform agency, INCRA land titles, especially in the Amazon, for if they could was established in 1969, however it has not managed demonstrate effective cultivation for a year and a day, to truly redress these inequalities. then they could claim ownership. This led to enormous deforestation by cattle ranchers and an increase in Most of the country’s four million farms are dedicated land conflicts. In the 1970s, with the construction of the to subsistence production, with landless farmers Trans Amazonian highway, INCRA (Instituto Nacional renting smallholdings from wealthy landowners while de Colonização e Reforma Agrária/National Agency working long hours for poor rates of pay on their for Land Reform and Settlement) established schemes landlords’ plantations. There have been increasing to attract hundreds of thousands of potential farmers movements among landless peasants, such as from the into the Amazon for cattle production. Between 1966 Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) demanding and 1975 Amazon land values grew by 100% per year land reform.14 with government subsidies encouraging ‘land reform’ and throughout the 1970s and 1980s there was an influx of farmers clearing forests for beef production, with both improved transportation and high prices of beef increasing their profits.11 ​Logging was another major contributor to deforestation. Today about 70 percent of deforestation in Brazil is due to cattle ranching.12

8 5. Hill. D (2015) Meet the ‘babassu breakers’ on Brazil’s ‘new agricultural frontier’. The Guardian www.theguardian. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NV.AGR.TOTL.ZS com/environment/andes-to-the-amazon/2015/sep/01/ 10. Agribusiness Only Sector of Brazil Economy That Grew in babassu-breakers-brazils-agricultural-frontier 2015 http://www.agriculture.com/news/crops/agribusi- 6. European Coffee Federation www.ecf-coffee.org/ ness-only-sect-of-brazil_2-ar52515 about-coffee/coffee-facts 11. Hall, A.L. (1989) Developing Amazonia, Manchester: Man- 7. Cook (2016) World Beef Production: Ranking Of Countries chester University Press http://beef2live.com/story-world-beef-production-rank- 12. Butler (2016) Amazon Destruction http://rainforests. ing-countries-0-106885 mongabay.com/amazon/amazon_destruction.html 8. Top 10 Soybean Producing Countries http://www.map- 13. WWF (2011) Soya and the Cerrado: Brazil’s forgotten jew- sofworld.com/world-top-ten/soybean-producing-coun- el http://assets.wwf.org.uk/downloads/soya_and_the_ tries.html cerrado.pdf?_ga=1.189388008.251111987.1461674865 9. The World Bank, Agriculture, value added (% of GDP) 14. http://www.new-ag.info/en/country/profile.php?a=259

9 CONTEXT & CURRENT SITUATION

CHARACTERISTICS OF BABASSU PALM

The babassu palm is common throughout the felled palms is fermented to produce palm wine or southern edges of Amazônia from the Atlantic Ocean used to attract beetle larvae that are eaten or used to Bolivia, as well as throughout eastern and central as fish bait. The fruit is also used also as bait to catch Amazônia and northward to the Guianas. The babassu large rodents for food. Indigenous Kayapó in southern zones of southeastern Amazônia, situated in ​a climatic Amazonia make salt from stems of babassu and other transition zone between the humid Amazon Basin and Amazonian palms. Old, dry stems are left to burn the drier regions of central and northeast Brazil​, have slowly overnight. On the following day, they collect particularly high abundance of this palm, especially the ash in baskets made from palm leaves, through Maranhão and Piauí​.​ Fruiting​ palms can number 100- which water is subsequently filtered, collected in 200/ha.15 The babassu can dominate landscapes due a gourd, and allowed to evaporate, leaving a salty to its ability to ​survive cutting and burning. The secret residue. This process provides the Kayapó with their to this is an adaptation known as ‘hidden’ germination, principal source of salt, which is used in cooking and where the growing point initially grows downwards medicine.18 until vertical growth begins several years later. Cutting and burning do not kill stemless palms because this The leaf and stalk of the palms are used for building ‘hidden’ stem remains protected underground. Thus materials for roofs, fences, bridges, foundations and when primary forests containing babassu are cut and benches, to make clothing or may be composted for burned, stemless palms survive even though mature fertilizer. Buttons can be made of the woody internal palms may not.16

Because babassu trees grow in dense forests, the collection and transport of the nuts is difficult. Nevertheless, they have been extensively exploited and the natural forests have been heavily thinned out. Machines have been developed to crack the hard shell and remove the kernels from the nut, but most of the kernel removal is still done by hand.

BABASSU PALM USES AND PROPERTIES

There are 28 edible and chemical products that can be made from the babassu palm17. Babassu oil is used as a food in cooking, as a fuel and a lubricant or may be used to make soap and cosmetics. The remainder of the kernel after oil has been extracted is fed to animals. The flesh of the nut may be used to make flour and the shell used to make charcoal. Palm hearts are extracted from the tree for food and a juice pressed from the rachis is used as medicine for its antiseptic and styptic properties. Sap collected from stumps of

10 15. Michael J. Balick & Claudio U. B. Pinheiro, ‘Babassu’, FAO http://www.fao.org/docrep/v0784e/v0784e0u 16. May et al. (1985) Subsistence Benefits from the Babas- su Palm (Orbignya martiana) p. 115-6 http://www.alice. cnptia.embrapa.br/bitstream/doc/955767/1/7295.pdf 17. Encyclopedia Britannica ‘Palm Tree’ http://www.britanni- ca.com/plant/palm-tree 18. May et al. (1985) Subsistence Benefits from the Babassu Palm (Orbignya martiana). Economic Botany, 39(2), pp. 113-129 http://www.alice.cnptia.embrapa.br/bitstream/ doc/955767/1/7295.pdf

11 part. Fibres from the leaves are used to make baskets, mats, fans, sieves, twine, torches, whisks, bird cages, hunting blinds and animal traps. The fruit is burnt by rubber workers for its oily smoke that can be used to cure wild rubber. The husks are used for handicrafts and when burnt the smoke also acts as an insect repellent. 19 The babassu is considered the largest native oilseed industry based on the harvest of a wild plant worldwide and the residues have been found to be a source of bioenergy, the shells being capable​ of replacing coke in Brazilian steel plants.20 Babassu charcoal produces a smokeless, long-lasting fire that is appropriate for local, clay- Babassu oil contains lauric and comedogenic which means it does covered stoves. Its low sulfur and myristic acids, fatty acids that are not clog the pores. It is a great phosphorous content generates very good for hair and skin. Lauric source of vitamin E and has anti- less pollution than mineral coals acid is very low in toxicity, making inflammatory properties. Babassu and other types of charcoal.21 it a good choice for use in soaps also contains a significant amount and shampoos. Lauric and myristic of oleic acid, which is healthful acids draw body heat, lending when consumed. Oils with good babassu oil what herbalist call concentrations of oleic acid are coolant and refrigerant qualities. known to lower blood cholesterol. It cools down the skin and scalp, Like most palms, babassu making it useful in the summer contains palmitic acid. Palmitate or when using heat appliances on is both antioxidant and a vitamin the hair. It works as a great skin A compound. emollient also because it is non-

12 THREATS TO THE BABASSU NUT BREAKERS

The main babassu extraction regions have suffered intense, long running conflicts over land. These escalated after the implementation in Maranhão of the 1969 Land State Law, known as “Sarney’s Law”, which encouraged agricultural projects in the state by converting thousands of hectares of public lands to private properties, justified by characterizing them as "empty lands". This intensified existing social inequalities in the region, since many family farmers and traditional peoples lost the land where they lived and which represented their livelihood. The affected people in these regions formed agrarian unions, grassroots movements and organizations and many of their leaders have been killed as a result of these land conflicts.22 further face exploitation by intermediaries to whom For the babassu nut breakers, landowners have often they sell their products (primarily shelled nuts). These blocked access to the babassu palm trees, including local merchants not only offer low prices, but often with violence and by imposing illegal charges for the modify their scales or require that the nuts be traded collected nuts. The increased size of large landholdings, for lower value products rather than cash payment.24 especially for large-scale agricultural monocultures, has worsened this situation and has been accompanied MIQCB has also warned of the threats to their by environmental degradation through deforestation. livelihood from the pig iron and ceramics industries, Huge areas of babassu have been cut down for which use the coconut shells and husks to make cattle-ranching, logging or for eucalyptus, teak, soy, charcoal on a larger-scale. These industries burn the sugarcane, palm oil and bamboo plantations, while entire nut, wasting the kernels and the nutritional more and more of the standing forests are being potential of the fruit, while also causing air pollution. fenced off. Babassu forests are also knocked down to The burning of the kernels produces acrolein, a toxic make charcoal to produce pig iron and steel, to feed fume. Thus the use of vegetable oil as motor fuel animals and to make way for fish farms.23 The women before it is turned into biodiesel is prohibited. The bioenergy boom could bring new and powerful actors into the fight over babassu palm trees.25

19. Michael J. Balick & Claudio U. B. Pinheiro, ‘Babassu’, FAO 3.2 Land Conflicts, ActionAid Brazil and ActionAid USA http://www.fao.org/docrep/v0784e/v0784e0u.htm 23. Hill, D. (2015) Future of Brazil’s babassu fruit breakers 20. Thiago de Paula Protásio et al. (2014) Babassu nut resi- threatened by deforestation http://novacartografiaso- dues: potential for bioenergy use in the North and North- cial.com/cobertura-midiatica-das-quebradeiras-de-co- east of Brazil http://springerplus.springeropen.com/ co-babacu-e-lancamento-do-mapa-em-acao-conjun- articles/10.1186/2193-1801-3-124 ta-do-miqcb-e-pncsa/ 21. May et al. (1985) Subsistence Benefits from the Babas- 24. Ramos et al. (2016) The Struggle of Babassu Nut Breakers su Palm (Orbignya martiana). Economic Botany, 39(2), in Brazil for Access to Land, Territory, and Natural Re- p. 124 http://www.alice.cnptia.embrapa.br/bitstream/ sources: A Case for Implementing the Tenure Guidelines, doc/955767/1/7295.pdf 3.2 Land Conflicts, ActionAid Brazil and ActionAid USA 22. Ramos et al. (2016) The Struggle of Babassu Nut Breakers 25. Osava (2011) Biofuel production: A threat to livelihoods. in Brazil for Access to Land, Territory, and Natural Re- Al Jazeera http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opin- sources: A Case for Implementing the Tenure Guidelines, ion/2011/08/2011821754661632.html

13 MIQCB: INTERSTATE MOVEMENT OF BABASSU NUT BREAKERS ORGANISING BABASSU BREAKERS

The construction of a babassu nut breaker grassroots In 1991, with the first meeting of the Interstate movement has emerged because of intense conflicts Babassu Breakers in São Luís, the Coordination of between them and both the so-called ‘farmers’ who Women Babassu Breakers was created. In 1995, at the privatise the land, preventing free access to the Third Interstate Meeting the name was changed to babassu groves, and private companies funded by Interstate Movement of Babassu Breakers - MIQCB. national and international capital.26 By the late 1980s The MIQCB’s mission is to “organise the babassu the nut breakers movement began to organise around coconut breakers to know their rights, defend the these confrontations over access and common use babassu palm, the environment and the improvement of babassu forests. They have created different of living conditions in the extractive regions of organizational forms such as local associations, babassu”. It is organised into 6 Regions, with 24 cooperatives and professional associations as a women elected in Interstate Meetings every three form of resistance to the expropriation processes. years, four representatives per region. In triennial Organisation in this grassroots movement is derived meetings, 240 delegates discuss and elaborate policies much more from social relations built up during of the Movement in an Interstate Action Plan which is conflict situations – especially land conflicts – than articulated and implemented in each region according from geographical criteria. to local specificities.27

The political pressure exerted by the nut breakers’ grassroots campaigning has succeeded in gaining the adoption of the Free Babassu Laws, which grant access to the babassu groves in 17 municipalities of the States of Maranhão, Pará and Tocantins. The nut breakers have also formed cooperatives for the production and sale of fair trade babassu by- products, such as soap, mesocarp (Orbignya phalerata, Arecaceae), handicrafts and oil and remain engaged in dialogue with Brazil’s government over policies for traditional peoples. Other important achievements were the creation of the GT Babassu Work Group in 1998 and the creation of the National Commission on Sustainable Development of Traditional Peoples and Communities in 2007, aiming at the implementation of policies demanded by the babassu nut breakers themselves, in accordance with their lifestyles.

14 26. Carvalho Martins, C., (2014) Organizational forms of the Babassu coconut breakers in a context of mobilization, http://ifnotusthenwho.me/story/babassu-brazils-war- rior-women/ 27. ‘MIQCB’ Movimento Interestadual das Quebradeiras de Coco Babaçu http://www.miqcb.org/#!miqcb/c1wfv

15 FREE BABASSU LAWS

The Law Project No. 1.428 drafted in 1996, known as the “Free Babassu Law”, is one of the principal ways that the babassu nut breakers have secured their legal rights to babassu groves. This law was developed by the MIQCB in collaboration with regional politicians and resubmitted three times before it was successful. The women worked collaboratively with politicians right from the design of proposed laws to the choice of councilor or deputy that would represent them in presenting the laws. They remained involved in the development and presentation of new legislation to different chambers and assemblies and during voting days. The success of this strategy spurred the nut breakers’ movement to begin organizing to propose multiple laws at the state and municipal The State Day of Women Babassu laws prioritize private land owners’ level in areas where babassu palms Nut Breakers and recognises self- control over the land containing are native.28 attribution as a valid criterion babassu trees. There have been for the recognition of babassu various situations which required 17 municipalities having approved nut breakers recognition as that babassu breakers retreat and such legislation, while at the state traditional people. These laws vary wait for another opportunity to level, in Tocantins, Law No. 1.059, in their content; while some do present new legislation which (2008) has been approved which guarantee free access to babassu better represents their needs as a prohibits “burning, bringing down areas, others, must be reworked community. and predatory use of babassu nut in order to secure greater access palms and use of other predatory to babassu groves for the nut measures,” as well as another breakers. Drafted in the context state law in Maranhão (No. 9.428, of pressure from economically August 2, 2011) which establishes powerful actors, some of these

16 STRENGTHENING THE MOVEMENT

The approval of each one of these free babassu laws The strengthening of this movement requires represents a very important achievement in the education and training of young leaders in order to creation of innovative legal mechanisms in which keep moving forward. This is a challenge faced by traditional peoples have successfully leveraged their most rural grassroots movements, given the exodus political power in order to limit the influence of of young people from rural areas to urban centers powerful landowners. The nut breakers’ strategies looking for jobs or study opportunities, which they and successes present an alternative proposal to may or may not find. The MIQCB has been trying dominant management practices of landowning elite. to promote ways to create opportunities for young However, implementing and enforcing these new laws women to stay in the territory and continue the fight is still needed in order to secure truly free access to as nut breakers.29 babassu groves for the nut breakers; many still find themselves fenced away from the trees or still find them cut down. In the areas where women babassu NEW THREATS nut breakers have stronger social influence, the laws have been more effective. The coconut breakers have In May 2015 the government launched a new found that legal training of their members in order to Agricultural Development Plan for ‘Matopiba’, an gain skills necessary to submit formal complaints to approximately 73 million hectare area intersecting municipal, state and federal agencies is essential. They the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia, have found that reporting the irregular enforcement of which president Dilma Rousseff is calling Brazil’s “new the laws and continued felling of the babassu groves to agricultural frontier” and the Agriculture Ministry the government has proved to be a successful strategy says is “considered the last agricultural frontier in for ensuring the enforcement of these laws. the world.”30 Alfredo Wagner, an anthropologist from Amazonas State University says that government documents about Matopiba “show a completely open field into which agro-industry can go. There’s nothing and no one there. As far as the government is concerned, there are no babassu.”31 The data that supported the launch of this initiative has disregarded the social and environmental importance of babassu.32

28. Ramos et al. (2015) The Struggle of Babassu Nut Break- 30. Hill. D (2015) Meet the ‘babassu breakers’ on Brazil’s ‘new ers in Brazil for Access to Land, Territory, and Natural agricultural frontier’. The Guardian http://www.theguard- Resources: A Case for Implementing the Tenure Guide- ian.com/environment/andes-to-the-amazon/2015/ lines, 3.2 Land Conflicts, ActionAid Brazil and ActionAid sep/01/babassu-breakers-brazils-agricultural-frontier USA http://www.actionaid.org.br/sites/files/actionaid/ 31. Hill, D. (2015) Future of Brazil’s babassu fruit breakers the_struggle_of_babassu_nut_breakers-web.pdf threatened by deforestation http://www.theguardian. 29. Ramos et al. (2015) The Struggle of Babassu Nut Break- com/environment/2015/aug/18/future-brazils-babas- ers in Brazil for Access to Land, Territory, and Natural su-fruit-breakers-threatened-deforestation Resources: A Case for Implementing the Tenure Guide- 32. ISA (2015) Mapa revela aumento da incidência de lines, 3.2 Land Conflicts, ActionAid Brazil and ActionAid babaçuais no PI, TO, MA e PA https://www.socioambien- USA http://www.actionaid.org.br/sites/files/actionaid/ tal.org/pt-br/noticias-socioambientais/mapa-revela-au- the_struggle_of_babassu_nut_breakers-web.pdf mento-da-incidencia-de-babacuais-no-pi-to-ma-e-pa

17 COMMUNITY MAPPING

Neither the nut breaker’s movement, the traditional In 2005, the New Social Cartography Project of communities nor family farmers living in this region the Amazon (PNCSA), together with the Interstate have been consulted in this process, which will likely Movement of Babassu Coconut Breakers (MIQCB) heavily impact their lives and livelihoods. The project produced a book and map titled “Ecological War in the is intended to promote economic and environmental Babassu Groves”. This work, carried out in collaboration development, focusing particularly on infrastructure, between researchers and babassu coconut breakers, innovation and technology, in order to expand the details the conflicts and forms of mobilization created rural middle class.33 However it is unclear to what to defend traditional lifestyles threatened by business extent it will expand large agribusiness and whether initiatives. Conflicts have become increasingly fiercer small-scale family farmers will be protected. The due to new business strategies submitted to the expansion of large-scale monoculture is a major threat approval of the government. Even in areas that have to babassu areas. There is already a major expansion already been expropriated for land reform as well as of soybean, eucalyptus and sugarcane in the region in indigenous and quilombola areas, the exploration of which is causing not only deforestation but also the natural resources has intensified and has been creating burning and poisoning of babassu palm trees, and new conflicts. In 2013, with the approval for the the expulsion of family farmers and agro-extractivist Graduate Program in Social and Political Cartography people from their land and prevention of access to of the Amazon (PPGCSPA) devised by professor Alfredo babassu groves. The production of soybeans alone in Wagner Berno de Almeida and linked to Universidade the region increased from 84,000 tons in 1993 to 7.6 Estadual do Maranhão (UEMA), further collaborative million tons in 2014 and is the main product promoted research began for the “Social Cartography Project in the region. of Babassu Groves: social mapping of the babassu ecological region”.36 While violations of the Free Babassu legislation used to be committed mainly by large Brazilian landowners, Maria do Socorro Teixeira Lima is one of the increasingly it is multinational companies who are many hundreds of quebradeiras who coordinated expanding activities in the region. Another challenge with researchers to draw this map of the Babassu to the protection of Babassu palms is that babassu Ecological Region, which was unveiled at a press groves are often classified as deforested or degraded conference in July 2015. “This [map] gives us a chance areas in official documents, creating difficulties to prove we exist and the babassu exists,” Maria told for these areas to be established as legal reserves the conference. “We’re going to make Katia Abreu [the which can be safeguarded. However, a recent study agriculture minister promoting “Matopiba”] swallow conducted by the New Social Cartography shows that her paper. We’re going to take this map to Dilma.”37 in spite of this challenge the total area covered by babassu groves has expanded.34

Legally, most of this land is owned by the state, however there is no clear institutional setting to stop land grabbing, which often leads to violent conflicts. Across Brazil, 34 people were killed in land conflicts in 2013, according to figures cited by Human Rights Watch last year, and nearly 2,500 rural activists have received death threats over the past decade.35

18 33. Machado (2015) Dilma cria a Agência de Desenvolvimen- 36. Carvalho Martins, C., (2014) Organizational forms of to do Matopiba http://www.piaui.pi.gov.br/noticias/%20 the Babassu coconut breakers in a context of mo- index/categoria/3/id/19508 bilization http://ifnotusthenwho.me/organization- 34. Ramos et al. (2015) The Struggle of Babassu Nut Break- al-forms-of-the-babassu-coconut-breakers-in-a-con- ers in Brazil for Access to Land, Territory, and Natural text-of-mobilization/ Resources: A Case for Implementing the Tenure Guide- 37. Hill, David (2015) Meet the ‘babassu breakers’ on Brazil’s lines, 3.2 Land Conflicts, ActionAid Brazil and ActionAid ‘new agricultural frontier’ http://www.theguardian.com/ USA http://www.actionaid.org.br/sites/files/actionaid/ environment/andes-to-the-amazon/2015/sep/01/ba- the_struggle_of_babassu_nut_breakers-web.pdf bassu-breakers-brazils-agricultural-frontier 35. Arsenault (2016) ‘Losing our land like losing our lives’, Brazil activist tells World Bank http://www.reuters.com/ article/us-landrights-brazil-agriculture-idUSKCN0WI2QY

19 LAND RIGHTS & ACCESS

The precedent established by the passage of the Free Babassu Laws by legislative bodies within Brazilian jurisdictions, regulating the activities of large landowners and granting shared-use access to babassu groves, is invaluable. This process contains important lessons that can be shared in order to strengthen the land rights struggle of many peoples and communities which experience similar challenges. For example, within Brazil the achievements of the babassu nut breakers have inspired the organization of Traditional Healers of Paraná, which also won approval of a law that guarantees the collection of medicinal herbs in the property of others, even without asking for consent. The free babassu laws ensure not only the preservation of babassu palms in private areas, but also the free access to the babassu palms in these areas without UN Tenure Guidelines offer already been recognized in certain authorization from or any kind of support for the position of babassu localities within Brazil, but which payment to the landlord. This is nut breakers by insisting that should be recognized by the a major milestone for the rights recognition of their rights as a national government. Globally, of traditional peoples in Brazil to vulnerable population of land- the nut breakers offer an example natural resources. users be prioritized, especially as of the women and vulnerable or it is key to their realization of the indigenous communities whose right to food in their communities. rights to land and food need to be Their history of shared land use recognized and realized. Their land falls into the Tenure Guidelines use is also exemplary of some of categories of customary and the types of informal or customary informal tenure rights that have tenure, or shared use rights, which are often overlooked when governments prioritize instead the rights of those with better access to monetary resources and to land titling bureaucracies.38

20 WOMEN/GENDER

Babassu nut breaking is generally carried out by women and children, while men in these communities typically work in agriculture and in transporting the babassu fruits to the home for breaking at a later time. During the land conflicts, while men fought with the landowners in the villages it was the women who organised the legal battle that resulted in the Free Babassu Laws. As a result of their organizing, women’s status as a social group in Brazil has been strengthened and women have won more rights and power within the political system.39

FAIR TRADE

In 1998, there already existed five agro-extracting cooperatives, the best examples being the Agro- extractive Cooperative of Small Producers of Lago do Junco (COPPALJ - formed in 1991), a soap factory, the co-operative for mesocarp extraction, and two initiatives of the Association of the Rural Women Workers (AMTR). In 2009, to meet the need to improve market access for babassu products sale, MIQCB created the Interstate Cooperative of Women Babassu Nut Breakers (CIMQCB), organizing them into productive communitarian groups for processing and marketing of a full range of babassu products. The cooperative produces different kinds of laundry and bath soap, babassu oil, flour, artisanal crafts, and other products. Today there are 37 productive groups that bring together 282 women of whom 136 are cooperative members. The lack of support for developing the babassu economy by the government is still a challenge for the movement. 40

38. Ramos et al. (2015) The Struggle of Babassu Nut Break- ers in Brazil for Access to Land, Territory, and Natural Resources: A Case for Implementing the Tenure Guide- lines, 3.2 Land Conflicts, ActionAid Brazil and ActionAid USA http://www.actionaid.org.br/sites/files/actionaid/ the_struggle_of_babassu_nut_breakers-web.pdf 39. ibid.

21 Some cooperatives, such as such as the Association in Land COPPALJ, have received huge Settlement Areas of Maranhão boosts through direct trade with State (ASSEMA - created and companies such as Aveda and the directed by rural workers and Body Shop. The Body Shop has female babassu nut breakers) been sourcing babassu oil from provide technical, economic and COPPALJ since 1995 and in that political assistance to babassu nut time has bought over 140 tonnes breakers, particularly to develop of the oil from them. By selling the the organisation of cooperatives oil directly to them the women for the sustainable management have access to a secure market of natural resources. Their main and they receive much better focus is family farming, equitable and stable prices, enabling the gender relations and protection of cooperative to invest more in its cultural diversity. shops and factory. Organisations

22 SCALES OF PRODUCTION

Babassu is generally low yielding due to the labour Before 1980, there were 33 factories; presently, only 6. intensive process to harvest the kernels, with most When processors did shift from manual to industrial nut breakers yielding between 5-10 kg of whole processing men began to displace women as the main kernels per day. The main problem of babassu oil income earners from babassu. However, many of the extraction is the cracking of the nuts. There have been cooperatives in the last decade have been ensuring efforts to develop mechanical methods for extracting the women receive their share. Resistance to more the kernels. However, the fruit is challenging to work efficient production methods is also fuelled by the with, as they vary widely in size and in number of fear that the added value of the fruit and its products kernels contained in each and it is difficult to bring will further limit access to the babassu groves as heavy machinery directly to the places where the nuts landowners awaken to its economic potential.43 are harvested. Damaged kernels must be processed immediately to avoid going rancid. A village level oil press can be used to immediately extract oil in small quantities and small kilns can make charcoal.41

In the 1970s demand for babassu oil grew rapidly, however supply was unable to increase with it and other, less fatty, oils quickly filled the gap.42 The instability in price due to competition with the African oil palm and the coconut discourages industrial babassu oil production. Estimates indicate that only 26% of the fruits produced annually in Maranhão are used. The number of oil factories in Maranhão has decreased dramatically between 1980 and 2000.

40. Ibid. 43. : Pinheiro, C.U.B. 2004. The babassu palm (Orbignya 41. FAO, Yields, harvesting and processing methods http:// phalerata Martius) and its exploitation in the Cocais www.fao.org/docrep/v0784e/v0784e0v.htm region of Maranhão, north-eastern Brazil. In: Alexiades, 42. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations M.N. y Shanley, P. (eds). Productos Forestales, Medi- (1995) Report of the International Expert Consultation on os de Subsistencia y Conservación. Estudios de Caso Non-Wood Forest Products p.108 sobre Sistemas de Manejo de Productos Forestales No Maderables. Volumen 3 - America Latina. CIFOR, Bogor, Indonesia http://www.cifor.org/Publications/pdf_files/ Books/BAlexiades0701.pdf

23 PREPARING FOR DISCUSSION

INITIAL QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. How can the babassu nut breakers contribute to sustainable agriculture in Brazil? 2. How much can babassu extraction increase while maintaining sustainable practices? 3. What are the main obstacles to sustainable agriculture in Brazil, both practically and politically? 4. How widely is the babassu nut breakers’ struggle known about within Brazil? 5. How much public support is there for their campaign? 6. How many politicians in Brazil have spoken publically about these issues? 7. What role can community mapping have in securing land access and changing legislation? 8. How can changes in legislation be better implemented and enforced?

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES

Can you find products with babassu oil in?

• What information does the manufacturer gives you about the product? • Can you find out how and where the oil was produced and where the product was produced, distributed and sold? • In groups, discuss the impact the product has on the environment and the impact it has on the lives of those who are involved in producing it.

Find out how many major cosmetics companies use babassu oil in their products.

• What are the main messages they promote in their advertising? • Do they highlight the origin of their products?

24 FURTHER INFORMATION

USEFUL CONTACTS FURTHER READING

MIQCB - www.miqcb.org - [email protected] Hill, David (2015) ​Meet the ‘babassu breakers’ on Brazil's 'new agricultural frontier' www.theguardian. New Social Cartography Project of the Amazon - com/environment/andes-to-the-amazon/2015/ www.novacartografiasocial.com - pncsa.ufam@yahoo. sep/01/ba bassu-breakers-brazils-agricultural- com.br frontier

Adrianna Ramos - www.socioambiental.org/pt-br ActionAid Article: One minute with Dona Dijé of the Brazil Babassu Nutbreakers www.actionaidusa. If Not Us Then Who? www.ifnotusthenwho.me - org/2016/04/one-minute-dona-dije-brazil- [email protected] babassu-nutbre akers

Carvalho Martins, C., (2014) Organizational forms DOCUMENTARIES of the Babassu coconut breakers in a context of mobilization, http://ifnotusthenwho.me/ Quilombola land rights: organizational-forms-of-the-babassu-coconut- Freedom breakers-in-a-context-of-mobilization/ ifnotusthenwho.me/story/freedom/ Ramos et al. (2016) ​The Struggle of Babassu Nut Powerful female social leaders: Breakers in Brazil for Access to Land, Territory, and From Our Ancestors Natural Resources: A Case for Implementing the ifnotusthenwho.me/story/our-ancestors/ Tenure Guidelines, ActionAid Brazil and ActionAid USA www.actionaid.org.br/sites/files/actionaid/ the_struggle_of_babassu_nut_breakers-web.pdf

Miyasaka Porro, N. and Shiraishi Neto, J. (2014) Coercive Harmony in Land Acquisition: The Gendered Impact of Corporate “Responsibility” in the Brazilian Amazon, Feminist Economics, 20:1, 227-248, Feminist Economics, 20:1, 227-248

25 ‘If Not Us Then Who’ communicates firsthand the unique personal stories of indigenous peoples, as they battle to protect their lives, their cultures and our forests. When stripped down protecting our planet is not only about politics and policies it’s about people taking ownership and taking action, no matter how small.

Web: ifnotusthenwho.me Facebook: If Not Us Then Who Twitter: @IfNotUs_ThenWho Instagram: @IfNotUsThenWho Youtube: If Not Us Then Who

Latest edition: 27/09/16 .v3 Design by Louise Armour/Joshua Tylee

Written by Jaye Renold For more information contact:

Photography by Joel Redman [email protected]