A collective force in the semi-arid interior of Pernambuco to articulate agroecological organizations of civil society around strategic axes and enhance political influence. This is the role of the Pajeú Agroecology Network, whose central debates focus on the defense of the Pajeú River , the fight against climate change , the leading role of women in agroecology , and the strengthening of territories.
The Network is present in the Sertão do Pajeú region , which encompasses 17 municipalities and approximately 314 inhabitants, including cities such as Serra Talhada, Sertânia, São José do Egito, and Afogados da Ingazeira. Characterized by rural traditions, dry landscapes, and a rich cultural diversity—from folk literature to poetry—the region faces challenges such as water pollution , the impacts of renewable energies , and climate change , but also stands out for its initiatives of resistance and sustainable coexistence with the biome.
“Working in a network is strategic because no one does anything alone. Our proposals for coexistence with the Semiarid region, combating desertification and climate change can only be achieved through collective processes,” says Riva Almeida, coordinator of the Sabiá Agroecological Development Center, one of the founding organizations of the Network.
According to Almeida, the Sabiá Center played a historic role in the formation of the Pajeú Network, acting as a coordinator of various local organizations during the execution of an Agroecological Technical Assistance and Rural Extension (ATER) project between 2014 and 2017. "It was a period of intense political crisis in the country, and we felt the need for greater coordination to face the challenges ," he explains.
Now, after undergoing a strategic planning process, with support from the Ecos Fund of ISPN, between August 2024 and April 2025, the Pajeú Agroecology Network is reorganizing to expand its capacity for political influence . Conducted in three meetings, the final planning proposal was presented at the headquarters of Casa Mulher do Nordeste, in Afogados da Ingazeira (PE), on April 8th.
“Strategic planning was a demand for RPA to continue building sustainability, with women’s associations, informal groups, non-governmental organizations and unions as protagonists, committed to coexisting with the Semiarid region. This has been RPA’s fight since its first movements,” explained Sara Rufino, Project Supervisor at Casa Mulher do Nordeste.
For the representative of the Pajeú Women Producers Network, Apolônia Gomes, planning was essential for the organization to find its direction and establish governance. “After building this space, women in particular were able to understand their role in the RPA, in the community and in the spaces in which they work.”
The Pajeú Network is made up of the Sabiá Center, the Casa Mulher do Nordeste, the Pajeú Agroecological Association (ASAP), the Diaconia, the Bom Sucesso Community Association, the Mixed Rural Association of the Fortuna Community, among others. Each one leads a strategic debate for political incidence.
The expansion of wind and solar farms in the Sertão do Pajeú region is one of those strategic and controversial debates in the area. While they represent renewable energy sources, on the other hand, these projects – when implemented on a large scale – bring with them a series of environmental and social impacts that concern local communities and civil society organizations.
Wind farms face criticism for causing constant noise pollution (with noise levels that can exceed 45 decibels), high mortality rates for migratory birds (including endangered species), and a profound transformation of the Sertão landscape , affecting entire ecosystems.
Solar complexes, on the other hand, generate controversy due to their intensive use of land (with earthmoving that alters natural drainage), disposal of photovoltaic panels (which contain heavy metals), and the indiscriminate use of herbicides for area maintenance.
“We are not opposed to the renewable energy proposal, but to the model that is arriving in the territory: a centralized model that degrades and destroys. With deforestation and the use of herbicides to 'clean', in the case of solar panels, the area around the panels,” says Almeida, coordinator of Centro Sabiá.
In the Feijão e Posse quilombola territory, in Mirandiba (PE), what is worrying is a project by the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the National Electric Energy Agency (ANEEL), carried out by Eletrobras, which intends to implement new electricity transmission lines in the region.
According to the treasurer of the community association, Mazer Souza, the project will pass through nine communities. “Our fight today is to get the company to change this route. We don't want transmission lines passing through our territories. It will impact our lives, and what we have preserved over the years will be devastated . It's as if we didn't exist there.”
According to her, the Pajeú Agroecology Network has been strengthening the association to reach the people responsible for the project and question its contradictions. “There are laws that protect our quilombola communities and nature, but there are also laws that give the right to devastate what we conserve in exchange for money. And we know that life cannot be compensated with money .”
Families in the community fear for the environmental reserves and for eventually being removed from their lands. The community's involvement in the RPA (Environmental Protection Area) aims to provide information about what is happening in the territories and disseminate information to other quilombola territories.
Defense of Pajeú
The sanitation and treatment of wastewater from sewage treatment in the Pajeú River is a fundamental agenda item for the Network. Targeted by deforestation and fires in its surroundings, the waterway receives urban sewage and garbage from nine different sources.
The Pajeú Caravan , a territorial movement first held in 2010 to denounce threats in the Pajeú River basin and led by Vanete Almeida, a family farmer from the Rural Working Women's Movement of Pernambuco (MMTR-PE), was resumed in 2023 as a result of an articulation between the Pajeú Agroecology Network and the Pajeú River Basin Committee (COBH Pajeú).
COBH Pajeú is part of the integrated water resources management system of Pernambuco and is made up of a significant part of the Network's organizations.
“It is in this instance of water management that RPA organizations influence public policies for conservation and preservation of the environment based on experiences of living with the Semiarid region on an agroecological basis,” explains the president of the Committee, Ita Porto de Oliveira.
For Ita, who is also a political and pedagogical advisor at Diaconia, occupying the space of water governance is "fundamental to proposing solutions" to important issues such as tackling desertification, revitalizing river basins, and the impacts of renewable energy projects.
Women in agroecology
The Pajeú region has historically faced a context of violence against women . Data demonstrates this reality: in the first six months of 2024 alone, 1.203 cases of violence were registered in all 17 cities of Pajeú, almost 5% of the 26.752 cases that occurred throughout the state during the same period. The municipalities in Pajeú that lead the ranking are Serra Talhada, Afogados da Ingazeira, São José do Egito, Tabira, and Carnaíba.
“One of the Network’s principles is to emphasize the perspective of gender equality, to guarantee economic autonomy, access and control over common resources and goods, and women’s participation in political decision-making spaces,” explains Sara Rufino, from Casa Mulher do Nordeste.
Apolônia Gomes, in turn, recalls that the Network has been a “gateway” for women to discuss public policies in their municipalities, “so that they can be in these places, acting and strengthening themselves, accessing the market and other policies, launching commercialization and working with the products they produce”.
“It’s another space for us to address women’s rights, such as the fair division of domestic work, production and inclusion in the institutional market, so that they can break the cycle of violence ,” concludes the representative of the Pajeú Women Producers Network.
The Ecos Fund 's support for the Pajeú Agroecology Network is a strategic action to strengthen community and socio-environmental connections , part of the Seventh Operational Phase of the Small Grants Programme, implemented in Brazil by the Institute for Society, Population and Nature (ISPN), in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and resources from the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Learn more here.