Live event highlights traditional communities in the defense of the Cerrado.

The importance of indigenous peoples to the conservation of the biome was a central theme of the conversation, bringing reflections on ways of life, knowledge and traditions, challenges and threats in the territories; the virtual event marks the closing of a campaign to value Brazilian #Roots.

The #Raízes campaign mobilized the social media networks of IPAM (Amazon Environmental Research Institute), ISPN (Institute for Society, Population and Nature), and the Cerrado Network to promote the value of Traditional Peoples and Communities and Family Farmers – PCTAFs (pronounced “pecetáfis”) between February and April 2021. The series concluded on Tuesday, April 27th, with an event... live, A special event featuring the participation of the three organizations and guests from communities and peoples of the Cerrado region.

The live conversation featured the virtual participation of Célia Xakriabá, an indigenous woman from the Xakriabá people, a teacher, with a master's degree in Sustainable Development, a doctoral candidate in Anthropology, and a member of the National Articulation of Indigenous Women; Eldo Barreto, a member and resident of the Fecho de Pasto de Clemente community, in the municipality of Correntina (BA); and Samuel Caetano, a native of the Abóboras community in Montes Claros (MG) and a history student, part of the Rosalino Gomes articulation and the Geraizeiro Movement.

Representing the organizations at the event were the Director of Science at IPAM, Ane Alencar, the Coordinator of the Cerrado and Caatinga Program at ISPN, Isabel Figueiredo, and the Executive Secretary of the Cerrado Network, Katia Favilla.

To encourage public participation and engagement in the event, polls conducted on social media determined the theme of the live stream: PCTAFs and Nature Conservation was the most voted option by almost 100 people who participated in the interaction.

The virtual event discussed issues related to deforestation, water and environmental pollution, presenting reflections on the role of communities and peoples in conservation. The relationship between communities and the city, food sovereignty and security, as well as the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, were also points of reflection. The participants' speeches brought their experiences and histories of resistance and territorial struggle to the center of the debate.

Defenders of the Cerrado

Célia Xakriabá emphasized the importance of the territory and the Cerrado biome for the lives of traditional peoples.To speak of the territory and the Cerrado is to speak of our cuisine and our living pharmacy. The Cerrado has a place to eat, drink, and raise livestock, but above all, it has a place of healing. And every time they try to burn and deforest the Cerrado, every time they cut down a tree, they are cutting down a part of us.", said.

The struggle for land in Brazil mobilizes diverse segments of traditional peoples and communities who resist in their territories, developing fundamental actions for the conservation of diversity in the biomes, based on sustainable management integrated with the cycles of nature. Among these groups is the Fecho de Pasto segment; and Eldo Barreto, from the Clemente community (BA), shared his knowledge on the subject in the #Raízes live stream.

"We are a group of people who fight, who share the common use of the territory, who have collective and family practices, and who also have individual learnings. What defines our roots is that we are very connected to the conservation of the Cerrado. Unlike a project of destruction, our way of life is geared towards defending all existence and all forms of life.“Eldo stated.

Samuel Caetano, who is from the Gerais region, also shared inspiring words. “Our struggle is to guarantee our territory. Without territory, there is no memory, no reproduction, no essence. And our confrontation is very significant for this reason, because our way of life bothers capital.””, commented.

Highlighting the central theme of the conversation, Samuel Caetano explained that the preservation of communities and their territories is important for everyone, since it is nature itself that provides the basic resources to enable life on Earth: clean water, unpolluted air, good quality food, among many other elements.Our tool in this struggle is trying to convince the population that our way of life is important for maintaining their way of life."The man from the Gerais region concluded."

sharing stories

Over three months, the #Raízes campaign produced and disseminated content about who the Traditional Peoples and Communities and Family Farmers are, and their relevance in the construction and composition of Brazilian roots.

Through a series of publications with texts, images, and videos, the defined and achieved objective of the initiative was to share and disseminate knowledge, mainly to a wider audience, about the lives, knowledge, practices, and traditions of ancestral inhabitants of the Cerrado.

For those who wish to watch, the live stream #Raízes It is still available on ISPN's YouTube channel..

The #Roots campaign was funded by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), a joint initiative of the French Development Agency, Conservation International, the European Union, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, and the World Bank. A key goal is to ensure that civil society is involved in biodiversity conservation.