caatinga

The Caatinga occupies the Brazilian semiarid region, as well as transition zones where vegetation from other biomes interferes.¹ In terms of size, it covers an area of ​​almost 850 km², approximately 10% of the national territory, and is present in nine states: Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Alagoas, Sergipe, Bahia, Pernambuco, and northern Minas Gerais. Despite its importance, 46% of the Caatinga has been deforested, making it the third most degraded biome in Brazil, behind the Atlantic Forest and the Cerrado.

In terms of socio-environmental complexity, this biome is located in the world's most populated semiarid region and has the poorest population in Brazil. This situation leads to numerous social problems, such as difficult living conditions, unemployment, and a high infant mortality rate.⁴

A necessary solution for those living in the Semiarid region is knowing how to make the most of the Caatinga, which results in in-depth knowledge about the different uses of native vegetation, essential for food and nutritional security and sovereignty, and for generating employment and income for the population. The areas where communities live, through the sustainable use of biodiversity, enable the maintenance of ecosystem services essential for quality of life and economic development.⁵

The Caatinga's climate is semi-arid, which also carries an important political significance. With irregular rainfall causing long periods of drought, the Caatinga's populations had to learn to live with this characteristic. This required social mobilization and struggle for policies that ensured decent living conditions in the region, such as programs to disseminate technologies for coexisting with the semi-arid region. One of the most widespread are cisterns, which store rainwater for dry periods, enabling family farming year-round.

Speaking of technology, it must be acknowledged that the people of this biome, perhaps due to the pressure of life's storms, possess a creativity beyond imagination. They are people who can devise ways to coexist with the arid climate with whatever they have available. Thus, often with few resources, they find a way to harness the limited amount of water, store it in some other way, and then invent yet another way to reuse it. In terms of creativity, these people go even further, with so-called "gadgets," such as alternative water pumps that require no energy and homemade irrigation systems.

In this way, the Caatinga population demonstrates its strength. Their diverse cultural expressions convey the message. They reveal their reality, playing with words, making arid life gain grace and joy. The biome's resilience merges with the resilience of its people, who are building a new corner of Asa Branca. Where before there was only "burning earth and not a single plant"⁶, there is now abundance and abundant production. There is food to survive and also to sell. The people, once tormented by drought, have learned to live with the Caatinga.

As the 1999 Semi-Arid Declaration⁷ rightly stated, the sertão must be seen beyond the immortalized images of the punishing drought, those vast areas of cracked ground, murky water, and starving children. These images serve as a warning signal, but they diminish the reality of the Caatinga, which, beyond its aridity, is a source of culture and creativity. May this biome also be remembered in this way, because while the land burns and the white-winged bird no longer sings, it has a voice that reveals its enchantment and a hand that makes the sertão green and the sertanejo fed.