Going against the grain of the state that deforests the most in the country, the Guajajara people are leading a project to protect and restore landscapes rich in biodiversity in the Rio Pindaré Indigenous Land.
In the Rio Pindaré Indigenous Territory (TI) in Maranhão, a partnership between two local groups has a common goal: to revive ancestral practices, which the elders cherish, remembering the richness of springs and diverse forests in the territory. This is the main purpose of the project, carried out by the Wiriri Kuzá Wá Indigenous women's group and the Indigenous Volunteer Brigade, titled "Mother of Water: From Springs to Reforest Minds."
The Guajajara people inhabit the Indigenous Territory, which covers 15.002,91 hectares and has a population of 2. The territory is almost entirely located in the municipality of Bom Jardim, just over 240 km from the capital, São Luís, with a small portion (2%) in the municipality of Monção. In this area, the Pindaré River gives its name to the Guajajara homeland and marks part of the Indigenous Territory's borders.
The women's initiative and the partnership proposed through the project run counter to the alarming deforestation data in Maranhão. According to MapBiomas' 2023 Annual Report on Deforestation in Brazil (RAD), the state ranks first in native vegetation loss, with a deforested area totaling 331.225 hectares. This represents a 95,1% increase in deforestation, which means the state of Maranhão has assumed a new position as the deforestation leader in 2023.
It is against a backdrop of resistance that more than 50 women from Wiriri, along with 15 men from the Volunteer Brigade, are fighting to strengthen their people's cultural and environmental practices. Forest excursions took place in April of this year in the villages of Januária, Piçarra Preta, Novo Planeta, and Guarimã, to identify five priority stream sources for reforestation and the planting of 80 native species seedlings along the banks, primarily fruit trees. Overall, the project's proposed activities involve youth, adults, and elders from the territory's nine villages, with a focus on Indigenous women.
During two days of excursions, the groups visited these five priority spring sites, traveling by boat along the river or hiking through babassu groves. Once the springs were identified, the points were identified and marked with GPS, along with the planting of juçara, bacaba, and cupuaçu seedlings from the Volunteer Brigade's nursery in Aldeia Januária.
For local Indigenous leader Vanussa Viana Guajajara, participating in the excursions was a moment of reconnection with nature, filling her memory with stories told by her elders about the richness of animals and once-pristine landscapes in various parts of the Indigenous Territory. In addition to being a member of Wiriri Kuzá Wá, Vanussa is a member of the Articulation of Indigenous Women of Maranhão (AMIMA), a Biological Sciences student at the State University of Maranhão (UEMA), a family farmer, and an artisanal fisherman.
"It's a missing part of history, a void that needed to be filled. My father was once a chief and would tell us about the places we visited, saying, 'Oh, I've been there, we used to monitor this.' This has been going on since his childhood and that of his 'elders.' But it's only when we begin to understand that the spiritual comes before any other kind of connection that we feel more empowered. We feel the need for this connection; it's a charge of energy that can't be explained, but is felt by everyone who shares these moments," comments Vanussa.
Recovering memories of the IT landscape with the elders is an essential part of the project's activities, where the experience completes the stories that are remembered by adults and passed on to the younger ones. During the forest excursions, besides being an opportunity to visualize what the "elders" tell in their stories, it was a moment to recall some scenes that some of the participants have observed for a long time. This is the case of health agent Eloide Rodrigues Guajajara, who also wants to tell these stories to her children and grandchildren.
"I saw these places as a child, but I have few memories. The fight to preserve our territory dates back to my mother; it was my grandmother's fight, and it's a fight that goes back to them. I want to be able to share it with my children and grandchildren later. I want to leave my story behind, and for people to say, 'She was always in this fight, she was always here,' I want to show them our Indigenous struggle. To do this, we have to embark on activities to reforest what was lost," explains Eloide.
Collective protection: Gurupi Mosaic
The Rio Pindaré Indigenous Territory is part of the Gurupi Mosaic, a group of protected areas comprising six Indigenous Lands and a Conservation Unit, critical to the conservation of the Amazon biome. Illegal invasions of the territory for logging, hunting, and fishing have been impacting the area for years, altering native vegetation and leading to the scarcity of some animal species. In addition to these complex factors, there are urban centers surrounding the territory, the BR-316 highway that runs through the entire Indigenous Territory, and illegal fires that damage the vegetation, especially during the dry season.
In this context, the Indigenous brigade members of the Indigenous Territory face significant challenges in actively protecting their territory. Because they know the most difficult-to-reach areas of the forest through monitoring activities, the brigade members dedicate this work to mapping and reforestation activities. According to the brigade's squad leader, Rafael Caragiu Guajajara, due to the rich biodiversity, with a variety of animals, tree, and plant species, the Indigenous people constantly strive to maintain what they have and strive to recover what has been lost.
"Our challenge today is to maintain and protect our territory from invasions, hunters, loggers, and many others who want to profit from what exists in our territory, who want to illegally exploit what exists here, which harms the entire environment. Our land has been illegally exploited by invaders, and as a result, we have already lost streams and springs. But we want to restore what was lost, reforest the springs, to preserve what exists, but also to restore it," says Rafael.
According to Marisa Caragiu Viana Guajajara, general coordinator of Wiriri Kuzá Wá, some devastation caused by non-Indigenous people in the territory has been reversed, but many protection and restoration actions require ongoing implementation, highlighting the project's magnitude, especially given the deforestation data in Maranhão. The work of the women's organization, firefighters, and other territorial protection groups, such as Forest Guardians and Forest Warriors, allows for the maintenance of ancestral traditions such as the Festa da Menina Moça (Girl Moça Festival), which uses game meat to prepare smoked meat.
"The forest and water are elements that are integral to Guajajara spirituality, but this isn't just a one-off exercise. My 'grandmother' says that our territory was severely devastated, but now we're finding game again for our festivals and rituals. So, when the project's activities are completed, we'll continue monitoring. Mapping the springs, participating in the planting of seedlings, and learning more about our territory through the project are things that move me. This is essential to our spiritual and ancestral heritage," declares Marisa.
Mother of Water: from the springs to reforest minds
The project, executed by the women's organization of the Pindaré Indigenous Territory, Wiriri Kuzá Wá, and the Volunteer Brigade, is in partnership with the Mainumy Indigenous Community Association (AICOM) and receives funding from Podáali (Brazilian Amazon Indigenous Fund). The Institute of Society, Population, and Nature (ISPN), through the project "Alliance of Indigenous Peoples for the Forests of the Eastern Amazon: Conserve, Protect, and Restore," supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), provides support and technical assistance in the development and fieldwork. In addition to mapping springs and reforestation, Guajajara elders, adults, and youth jointly constructed ethnomaps after the fieldwork, gathering participants' knowledge about the territory and the places they visited.
ISPN technical advisor Robert Miller participates in the project's activities and emphasizes that restoration initiatives primarily involve mobilization and interaction between different groups and generations, with planting being a fundamental component of landscape management in the Rio Pindaré Indigenous Land. He emphasizes that the exchange of information and knowledge is essential and indispensable for territorial and environmental management, thus postulating a "biocultural restoration" by revisiting ancient dwelling sites, the use of natural resources, remembering events and the people who occupied these spaces, and the associated social and kinship relationships.
"The project encompasses a discussion of past actions that resulted in forest degradation and the actions needed for the future, such as restoration initiatives and better management of the territory and its resources. It involves not only planting and care (pruning, fire prevention, cleaning, etc.), but also a more general discussion about the species, their uses, and their cultural importance. Thus, we can speak of 'biocultural restoration,' which encompasses both environmental and biological aspects, as well as cultural ones," explains Robert.
ISPN technical advisor Caroline Yoshida emphasizes that through the Indigenous Peoples Program, the Institute has been working to strengthen collectives and organizations in the Indigenous Lands that make up the Gurupi Mosaic. "We provide technical support for the project, which is implemented by the Wiriri Kuza Wa women's organization and the Rio Pindaré Indigenous Territory firefighters. We provide activities involving reforestation and awareness campaigns about the importance of their springs, a proposal that also aims to strengthen cultural practices. Thus, we contribute to territorial and environmental management strategies for the territory," adds Caroline.
The project's schedule includes the acquisition of seedlings for planting Agroforestry Systems (SAFs) on two hectares of degraded dry land in the territory, the holding of discussion groups, training on planting monitoring, and collaboration with other organizations. In another project activity, Wiriri and the firefighters opened the Environmental Conference at UEMA, Santa Inês campus, on June 22nd. They presented on the project's activities, the importance of the territory's springs, and the conservation of the Pindaré River, which requires collective effort.
Text: Ariel Rocha/ISPN Communications Advisor