Discussions about the governance of the Cerrado, lectures, workshops, and roundtables made up the event, which also featured culture, crafts, gastronomy, and music.
For four days (September 13-16), Brasília hosted nine states from the Cerrado biome at the 09th Meeting and Fair of the Peoples, which brought together around 8 visitors just at the socio-biodiversity products fair. Representatives from the states of Piauí, Maranhão, Tocantins, Goiás, the Federal District, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso, and Mato Grosso do Sul participated.
"The Cerrado is standing thanks to the native peoples who live there," emphasized the general coordinator of the Cerrado Network, Maria de Lourdes de Souza Nascimento, known as Dona Lourdes.
The fair featured 272 exhibitors and generated a total revenue of R$ 300 from the sale of traditional medicines, natural cosmetics, handicrafts, food, and beverages made from raw materials obtained from the Cerrado region.
In the traditional medicine tent, herbalists and root healers, such as the women from the Pacari Association and indigenous people from different ethnic groups, presented bottled remedies, teas, ointments, and syrups to the public in Brasília "to cure any ailment of the body and spirit."
The indigenous peoples' tent showcased handicrafts from the Xingu, Timbira, Xavante, and Xerente peoples, and also offered body painting for visitors. Meanwhile, handicrafts from Tocantins were highlighted, particularly those made with golden grass and wooden artifacts.
At the food stalls, the products ranged from well-known Minas Gerais foods like cheese and guava paste to traditional community foods such as buriti and jatobá flour. From Maranhão, organic and certified babassu oil was a hit, as was the babassu mesocarp peta made by women from the Canto Ferreira Settlement (MA). From Goiás, the cachaça distilled from baru nuts, without sugarcane, was a surprise.
The Central do Cerrado cooperative's tent brought together 23 producer organizations and launched a new line of flours and oils under the Central brand, such as buriti flour and a mix of nuts, including licuri from Bahia, baru from northern Minas Gerais, and Brazil nuts from the Kayapó people, all packaged individually. The Slow Food Cerrado movement was also present, offering pequi cheese bread, cheese biscuits with monkey pepper, various juices, and other delicacies.
The novelties that delighted the audience during the four musical nights were at the booth of the Grande Sertão cooperative, from Minas Gerais, and Central do Cerrado. These included craft beers made from jatobá and sour coconut, which were a hit with visitors.
Political presence
In addition to the fair, the event featured an intense program of debates, workshops, lectures, and book launches. The opening ceremony, which ended with the chant "Standing Cerrado is what we want," included the distinguished presence of the Ministers of the Environment and Climate Change, Marina Silva, and of Indigenous Peoples, Sônia Guajajara; the Minister of Agrarian Development and Family Agriculture, Paulo Teixeira; the National Secretary of Food and Nutritional Security, Lilian Rahal; and the Secretary of State for the Environment and Animal Protection of the Federal District, Gutemberg Gomes.
“The People’s Meeting is a moment to make commitments, celebrate achievements, but also to demand accountability. I am committed to all of Brazil’s biomes and we will combat deforestation, period. Nature makes no distinction between legal and illegal deforestation. We can be an agricultural powerhouse without having to cut down another bush,” said Minister Marina Silva.
The Minister of Agrarian Development and Family Farming, Paulo Teixeira, highlighted that the Federal Government's priority is to strengthen family farming and stated that the traditional peoples and communities of the Cerrado are important partners of the Lula government.
ISPN at the Meeting
As part of the Meeting's program, ISPN promoted and/or participated in several events; here are some of the most strategic ones:
The first activity of the 10th Meeting and Fair of the Peoples of the Cerrado was to attend the public hearing in the Federal Chamber for the launch of the public consultation on the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation and Wildfires. the PPCerrado, an important tool for reducing deforestation in the biome. ISPN was present and you can learn more. about the action here.
On the table about Integrated Fire ManagementThe Practical Guide for the Development of an Integrated Fire Management Plan for Territories of Traditional Peoples and Communities of the Cerrado was launched. The guide combines scientific and technical knowledge with the traditional practices of communities that use fire to manage their territories. 500 copies of the material were distributed during the meeting. Learn more and access the guide here.
Roundtable discussions and consultations were also held as part of the initiative. I'm on the mapIn addition to the "Help desk support: Tô no Mapa and the Traditional Territories Platform," provided to guide users on how to use the application throughout the meeting, the workshop "Entering the Map – Tô no Mapa and PPT as tools for social cartography" and the dialogue session "Self-identification and Self-demarcation: Producing justice through the protagonism of Traditional Peoples and Communities and Family Farmers" were also held. Learn more here.
As part of Month of Philanthropy that Transforms, an initiative of the Comuá NetworkISPN and the Casa Fund hosted the debate “Dialogues on the importance of community philanthropy in the conservation of the Cerrado and its peoples.” Participants included institutions interested in expanding support for the Cerrado, such as the Banco do Brasil Foundation, the Sabin Institute, and BNDES, as well as civil society organizations working in the Cerrado and representatives of traditional Cerrado peoples and communities. The live stream of the panel discussion can be found [here/on the platform]. watched here, and for more information, go here.
In the context of the initiative We're watchingThe workshop “We’re Watching: A Tool to Combat Deforestation in the Cerrado” was held, which discussed the history of deforestation in the biome and how it is related, among other reasons, to the difficulty of society and public authorities in seeing the “standing Cerrado” as a way to generate income. Among the alternatives raised to address the degradation of the Brazilian savanna were the qualification and implementation of monitoring and enforcement tools, increasing the costs for those who deforest, and investing in infrastructure to make the standing Cerrado profitable. Learn more about Tamo de olho here.
Still within the debates on political advocacy for the Cerrado, ISPN participated in the panel "EU-Mercosur Agreement and the new European regulation on imported deforestation," which discussed the inclusion of the Cerrado in European Union regulations to prevent deforestation in its supply chains, an important topic in ISPN's work defending the Cerrado internationally.
As part of Observatory of the Economies of Sociobiodiversity (ÓSocioBio)ISPN was also present at the workshop “Sociobiodiversity of the Cerrado: babassu, baru and pequi”, which brought together more than 100 people. Producers from Maranhão, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Goiás and other states discussed the direction of the national bioeconomy and sociobiodiversity plan that is being developed by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MMA). Follow ÓsocioBio on social media here.
ISPN also promoted the workshop “Cerrativist Dialogues – training processes for community leaders,” an exchange of knowledge between community leaders from Tocantins, Piauí, and Bahia, discussing the importance of training processes to amplify the struggle for the Cerrado and its people. Cerrativism It is a training program aimed at representatives of traditional peoples and communities and family farmers to strengthen the fight in defense of their territories and the Cerrado biome. Learn more here.
Sunday of the Cerrado on the Eixão
To conclude Cerrado Week, ISPN produced the event "Cerrado Sunday at Eixão" on September 17th, featuring tastings of juices made from native fruits such as cagaita, mangaba, and coquinho azedo, in partnership with Central do Cerrado and Choro no Eixo, a musical group that plays every Sunday at Eixão do Lazer in Brasília, attracting a diverse audience from the city.
The general coordinator of the Cerrado Network and family farming, Maria de Lourdes, and the Cerrado native, Samuel Caetano, spoke at the microphone between songs during the Choro no Eixo group's performance. Both discussed the importance of the Cerrado to the city, such as its water supply, as well as the leading role played by traditional peoples and communities and family farmers in protecting the biome. The project manager of the Rosa e Sertão Institute, Damiana Campos, a member of the Cerrado Network, also spoke about the importance of the Cerrado and its people to life in the city.
Through this initiative, urban society was able to connect more with the riches of the Cerrado and understand the biome as an essential part of daily life in cities, whether it be providing healthy food and water security, or promoting climate balance and coping with extreme heat waves or cold spells.
Check out the video here to see how that day went.
Who organized the 10th Meeting and Fair of the Peoples of the Cerrado?
The OX Meeting and Fair of the Peoples of the Cerrado was an event organized by the Cerrado Network, produced by Funatura, and supported by several organizations: ISPN, IPAM, WWF Brazil, Instituto Cerrados, IEB, Instituto Terra Azul, CAA/NM, Central do Cerrado, Rede de Sementes do Cerrado, Instituto Rosa e Sertão, Slow Food Cerrado, CTI, Mopic, Assema, Angá, as well as Araticum, DGM Brasil, Humanize, Heks Eper, GIZ, Ósociobio, and Dome Bambu. Sponsorship was provided by the Secretariat of the Environment and Animal Protection of the Federal District Government, the National Council of SESI, BRB, the World Bank, and the Ministries of Environment and Climate Change (MMA), Agrarian Development and Family Agriculture (MDA), Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger (MDS), and the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio).