A long journey of almost three thousand kilometers took a group of Guarani-Kaiowá indigenous people from Mato Grosso do Sul towards the Ka'apor and Guajajara indigenous territories in Maranhão. The journey consisted of eight women and one man with very similar expectations. The trip had a clear objective: exchanging knowledge about nature protection and strengthening strategies to restore devastated territories.For them, the meeting also represented a collective dream: To see standing forests and free territories again.A landscape that exists only in the memory of the Guarani-Kaiowá elders.
The participants live in Reclaimed areas — disputed traditional territoriesThese lands are self-demarcated due to the State's failure to guarantee ancestral territory. In Mato Grosso do Sul, these land reclamations claim the right to exist on sacred lands, now deeply degraded by the advance of agribusiness.
"Agriculture plants soy and corn, and sprays pesticides. Because of this poisoning, our territory no longer has medicinal plants, native trees, or springs that are drying up. Some have already dried up completely; there are no more fish, no more medicine. Many things are causing more diseases, and we are experiencing more health problems.“reports Clara Lúcia, a Guarani-Kaiowá indigenous woman.
Given this scenario, in addition to the struggle for recognition and demarcation of their lands, the Guarani-Kaiowá also face the challenge of... to restore what was destroyed. biocultural restoration of territories It guarantees the protection of the land and water, strengthens food security in villages, enables access to medicinal plants, protects animals, and contributes to the balance of lifestyles and spirituality.
In reclaimed areas, cultivating the land also has political significance. The presence of cultivated fields, nurseries, and recovering forests helps to... legitimize indigenous land occupations and it can be considered in legal land demarcation proceedings.
Cerrado under threat
The Cerrado is the second largest Brazilian biome, covering approximately 24% of the national territory, an area of about 2 million km² that crosses 13 Brazilian states. It is a vital biome for water regulation. Therefore, it is considered the... heart of Brazil's watersData from MapBiomas shows that between 1985 and 2024, the Cerrado lost 40,5 million hectares of native vegetation, equivalent to 28% of its original coverage.
The research also shows that agricultural activities grew by 74%, with pasture area increasing by 14,7 million hectares, reaching its peak in 2007 with 54,5 million hectares during the same period.
Despite being considered the most biodiverse savanna in the world, More than half of the Cerrado has already been deforested.mainly due to the expansion of agribusiness. The devastation causes desertification, water scarcity, and increases the social vulnerability of traditional communities that depend on the biome.
"Our Cerrado has been completely devastated due to agriculture. We no longer have the native plants, trees, and fruits.“Maristela states.
Alliance between Peoples
In addition to restoration initiatives, indigenous peoples have strengthened national networking, promoting encounters, exchanges, and sharing of experiences. These connections allow for the sharing of resistance strategies and the strengthening of collective struggle for the right to land.
“Our struggle and their struggle are the same. Because we fight for our rights to indigenous lands. The land is very precious to us. The land is Mother Earth, and we cannot live without the land. We cannot live without the waters.”“says Edite Guarani.
Inspired by this confluence of peoples, the Guarani-Kaiowá women visited the Alto Turiaçu and Rio Pindaré Indigenous Lands in Maranhão, where they were welcomed by the Ka'apor and Guajajara peoples. The objective was to learn about them. local experiences of territorial protection, conservation and restoration.
The exchange was supported by the Institute for Society, Population and Nature (ISPN), through the Cerrativistas: Women of the Waters project, implemented with resources from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF). The project promoted a Training focused on strengthening leadership among traditional peoples and communities of the Cerrado.Among the 30 women participating in the course, five were Guarani-Kaiowá indigenous women who developed seed collection and seedling production projects aimed at restoring the territories where they live.
Lessons learned in the forest
During their visit to Maranhão, the Guarani-Kaiowá indigenous women walked through native forests and areas undergoing restoration, collected seeds and seedlings, drank water from vines, bathed in Amazonian rivers, and tasted pure açaí for the first time.
"I came here to learn about their village, their experience, how they've been working, and how they have that desire to reforest what they had already lost. For us, it's an experience we'll take back to our state. In Mato Grosso do Sul, our area is practically bare land, there's almost nothing there.“, says Ifigeninha Hirto Kaiowá.
Odenilda Hirto Kaiowá also highlighted the territorial protection strategies adopted by the Ka'apor.
"The preservation efforts they undertake, the monitoring, I saw all of that there. When the fires caused damage, they took care of it and the forest began to grow back."
For Maristela Aquino, of the Guarani Nhandeva people, the exchange of experiences strengthens the collective struggle.
"This experience was very important for us to return to Mato Grosso do Sul and understand that we need to strengthen the struggle. To support the reclaimed territories, whether with seeds or by teaching them how to have seedling nurseries, because the context here is different, it's a devastated context.. "
The exchange also highlighted differences between the biomes. While the Ka'apor and Guajajara peoples live in the Amazon, the Guarani-Kaiowá settlements are located in the Cerrado, the second largest biome in Brazil.
Spirituality and resistance
Among the Guarani-Kaiowá, the relationship with the land involves inseparable material and spiritual dimensionsNature is understood as a set of living and spiritual beings with which humans establish relationships of respect, care, and reciprocity.
The Guarani-Kaiowá way of life is deeply integrated with the natural environment, in a social interaction that transcends both material and immaterial planes. The beings that inhabit these two dimensions interact continuously, in relationships that express respect and interdependence between humans, animals, plants, and other elements of nature. Therefore, the restoration of the Guarani-Kaiowá homeland, the Cerrado biome, goes beyond the recovery of natural resources. It is about rebuilding cultural and spiritual bonds linked to TekoháThe territory where collective life is organized. In addition to the Cerrado, the Guarani-Kaiowá also occupy the Atlantic Forest. In the spiritual dimension, Tekohá encompasses the land, the forests, the fields, the waters, the plants, and the remedies of nature. It is in this space that the Guarani-Kaiowá way of life develops and gains meaning.
In this territory, a relationship is also established with the Tekojara, the guardians of the "ways of being." These spiritual entities inhabit different planes, tangible and intangible – and care for the elements of nature, such as animals, plants, minerals, and water, organizing the Tekohá balance, a place where life expresses itself.
"We need our territory to continue caring for our rightful nature, which is created by God, Tekojara, as we say in my language. That is why we are going out to defend it.“explains the indigenous leader, Bonifácio Reginaldo.
"Ka'aguy, in my language, means forest; it has an owner. We prayed out front before entering here, asking for protection from the forests. Everything has an owner. To cut down a plant, we ask permission. To reclaim the land, we also need to ask him to give us the territory.“says Bonifácio.
This spiritual dimension, however, has faced new threats. According to reports from indigenous leaders and organizations, the expansion of neo-Pentecostal churches in the communities has caused... religious conflicts and episodes of violence against houses of prayer and spiritual leaders.
"Here in Mato Grosso do Sul, evangelical churches are arriving with great force and disrupting the communities. It's a different way of thinking, a different way of understanding the world. It ends up erasing the memory of our ancestors, of our prayer leaders.“Maristela reports.
Demarcated lands also suffer pressure.
Even in already demarcated territories, security is not guaranteed. Chief Pedro Viana Guajajara, from the Piçarra Preta village, Rio Pindaré Indigenous Land, reports that invasions continue to occur.
“Even with the territory demarcated, there are always frustrations. People want to invade, they enter the territory and cause distress. There are still attacks.”
In this context, the exchange of experiences between different peoples becomes a An important tool for resistance against violence and prejudice..
Youth and the future
Indigenous youth also play a role. central role in this processDaniela Almeida Kaiowá, 17, traveled by plane for the first time to participate in the exchange program.
“The plants I brought, açaí and others, cassava, I've already planted them too. It's raining right now. It's already producing, and soon it will produce even more,” he says.
For many young people from the reclaimed lands, contact with native plants is something recent, since they grew up in areas where the original vegetation was almost completely destroyed.
Planting in these territories is an act of reconstruction. It means restoring nature, imagining the future, and reaffirming the indigenous people's permanence on the land of their ancestors. Restore to demarcate and demarcate to restoreThis is the symbiosis that sustains the future of the Cerrado. Through biocultural restoration, the empowerment of youth, and alliances between peoples, the Guarani-Kaiowá continue to forge paths of resistance.
“We, the young people, are the future for generations. We must strengthen our way of living and existing, bringing strength to our elders, who can no longer cope. It is our turn to learn more to care for nature and the forests,” says Manoela Almeida Kaiowá, also 17 years old.
